


The Three

by Deathofme



Series: The Three [2]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-01
Updated: 2011-10-09
Packaged: 2017-10-24 05:53:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 37,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathofme/pseuds/Deathofme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[The sequel to "Sybarite"] Some Helen/John and Helen/Nikola</p><p>After being purged of his energy elemental John Druitt has the opportunity finally to become a new man. But a sinister plot is afoot to reveal his identity as the true Ripper and compromise the Sanctuary. Helen can only think of one man who can come to her aid ... but he is long dead: Nikola Tesla.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The sequel to Sybarite! I have tried to remain as faithful to true historical timelines as possible, but of course some historic license has to be taken (i.e. the real Tesla never attended Oxford). One can read this story without the first, but there are some events and characters referenced that do not follow the TV series' canon.
> 
> This was also written before the Hollow Earth story arc reached its climax at the end of S3. So it will follow with the story logic that they have discovered Hollow Earth, encountered Adam Worth, and Ranna still runs Praxis.

THE THREE

 

 

ONE

***

 

 _Oxford University 1877_

         “I must confess, Mr. Tesla, that I had not anticipated such troubles from a student with such high recommendations from the Charles-Ferdinand University … but I did receive warning letters from Austrian Polytechnic. It appears it was an oversight on my part to ignore them.”

 

         “Yes well, the deans of Austrian Polytechnic did have more time to become better acquainted with me,” The young man replied.

 

         “ _Indeed_.” The Dean of the Science faculty trembled with irritation at the glib young foreigner who seemed to regard him with little respect for his authority. “The damages to the upper level observatory will be taken from your scholarship. And if I hear of any more unauthorized experiments with electrical current than I shall personally escort you outside Oxford myself.”

 

         “I did hear the English sense of humour was to be found somewhat lacking…”

 

         “ _Enough_.”

 

         Helen stood awkwardly outside the door to the Dean’s office, unable to help but overhear the heated conversation inside. She had heard of the new student who had transferred from Austria and the formidable reputation he was already gaining for himself. Apparently his last lab partner had been shocked with over a thousand volts of electricity and had fainted dead away. That coupled with his foreign accent and manners had effectively ostracized him from the rest of the students. And earned him the somewhat unflattering title of “ _that_ Serb”.

 

         Some less than polite words were exchanged beyond the closed door, and then she heard a loud bang, as if someone had slammed a book onto a desk. There was the sound of footsteps, and the door swung open.

 

         She started slightly, quickly recovering, and regarded the young man who stepped out of the Dean’s office with polite curiosity. He was slender, a dark moustache adorning his upper lip and his hair neatly slicked back. He looked surprised to see her standing there, but quickly gave her a small bow of his head, shutting the door behind him.

 

         “You must be Miss Magnus,” He offered her his hand. Helen sighed inwardly, and extended her own hand. The overbearing gestures of gallantry she received at Oxford were just as annoying as being duly ignored, but instead of kissing her hand like she expected, he shook it firmly.

 

         “Tell me, Miss Magnus – what do you think the effects would be on the human heart when shocked with a hundred thousand volts of electricity?” His English was clipped with a Slavic accent, but he spoke very well.

 

         His question caught her off guard, and she eyed him curiously. Was this a trick question? “It would go into cardiac arrest surely, and cease beating. It would mean death for the poor man involved.”

 

         He grinned slyly, as if withholding an amusing secret. “Yet I am very much alive.”

 

         Helen’s eyes widened. “Do you mean to tell me, sir, that you’ve deliberately shocked yourself with a fatal amount of electrical current?”

 

         “Fatal?” He lazily stretched his arms, working a muscle in his back. “I find it rather pleasant. You see, I find that the English are very single-minded when it comes to certain fields. You still run experiments with direct current exclusively.”

 

         Helen raised an eyebrow, wondering in the back of her mind why this strange man had decided to stop and speak to her now, but more fascinated with what he was intimating. “Alternating current. It’s been proposed as a theory only, there have been no practical observations…”

 

         He leaned over, as if to whisper in her ear some startling secret. “Go out one day during a thunder storm. You English do not lack for rain. Tell me then that no one has ever seen such a thing before…”

 

         With that mysterious exchange, he stalked away, fastidiously wiping his hands with a cloth square he dug out of his pocket. Helen had the feeling that she would run into the infamous Tesla again. It seemed inevitable.

 

***

 

         “Package,” The Big Guy growled, placing a slim brown parcel on her desk. Helen Magnus thanked him with a smile, and noted the postage on the parcel.

 

         “Brazil?” She tore the brown wrapping paper and found inside several postcards addressed to Will, and an old slim text on mythological beings in the Amazon jungle.

 

         “How sweet.” She set aside the postcards for Will to pick up later. He had an ongoing contest with Aurelian (or Aureliano now) on who could find the silliest postcards of the region, and some of Aurelian’s entries were truly laughable. The slim text must have been for her, and she flipped through it in interest.

 

         “Happy birthday,” The Big Guy intoned, and bashfully presented her with a small gift-wrapped box. Helen kissed him on the cheek and thanked him. It was a medicine bag from his people.

 

         “You know, for once I think I will actually have a peaceful birthday.” Helen grinned knowingly at the Big Guy and he chuckled with her. The past three alone had involved Tahitian zombies, skin walkers and lengthy meetings with the United Nations. She was not hopeful that the peace would last long today either.

 

         “Henry got stuck in the elevator if that counts.” The Big Guy barked with laughter at the thought and hugged Helen once more before shuffling out of her office to take care of the rest of the mail. Helen placed the slim book away and turned off her computer. She would do her rounds on the Sanctuary residents, and John would probably be back by the time she was done.

 

         It had been strange at first, getting used to seeing him almost every day. He had become a semi-permanent fixture of the Sanctuary now, unsure of where to go or what to do after they returned from the temple of the Silver Lady. She hadn’t believed him at first … that the elemental was gone…

 

         But it was. And now Helen didn’t know what do with herself, or with him. He still could never be the man she had known at Oxford. But she had also changed into a very different woman.

 

         Perhaps they would still be able to meet somewhere in between.

 

         Unsure of what to do with himself, but loathe to be useless and idle, John had partnered up with Kate as they both held the most connections to the unsavory parts of Old Town. They had gone out on a run right now to shut down an abnormal trafficking operation.

 

         Helen thought about the bottle of wine she had stowed away in her desk. A red vintage from 1879 … the year they had first become the Five. She found the thought both sad and pleasing that the anniversary of the group’s forming was also on her birthday. It filled her with no happiness to consider that so few of them were now left to celebrate.

 

***

 

         “On your right.” Kate grit her teeth and fired off the remaining rounds in her clip from her position behind a large storage crate. She released the empty clip and reloaded in a matter of seconds.

 

         Thankfully, during that time Druitt had teleported behind her assailant and knocked him out cold with a well-aimed strike to the back of his head.

 

         “Nighty night,” he growled as he shoved the prone man away from him. Kate had managed to gain a few more yards and incapacitated a further two men. They had hoped to get in and out without a confrontation, but a large transfer of money was taking place the day they decided to strike. It made things decidedly messy.

 

         “I think it’s time we cut and run,” Kate called out.

 

         “Did you get their shipping records?”

 

         Kate held up a small flash drive as she elbowed a man in the face. John nodded; they had what they needed. He twisted another man’s arm behind his head, knocking the knife from his would be murderer’s hand.

 

         “Ripper, here.” The man suddenly held up a slip of paper, blood spraying from his mouth. Druitt looked at him stricken.

 

         “What did you call me?”

 

         Druitt knocked the man’s head against the wall, and with a small measure of regret, slit his throat. Snatching the piece of paper, he grabbed Kate’s arm and teleported them away from what was quickly becoming a bloodbath.

 

         “Shit, are you okay?” Kate asked, her eyes wide at the sprayed blood down his front. She swayed slightly in the front courtyard of the Sanctuary, unused to teleporting.

 

         “It’s not mine.” Druitt stalked off to his room.

 

         He closed the door behind him and found that his hands were shaking. Since the incident in South America, he hadn’t taken a single man’s life. The rage he had felt, the blackness that poisoned his mind had disappeared. At first, he didn’t believe it himself. He was afraid to tell Helen – how could he explain it? He didn’t know himself how it happened.

 

         But the need to know for sure prevailed, and ever the scientist, Helen had run her tests and taken her brain scans. They showed incontrovertible proof that he was now different.

 

         And he was afraid. He wanted nothing more for over a century to be free of the black hatred that had ruled him. Now that it was gone, he was unsure of how to feel. Relieved, above all else, but it had been a part of him for so long that he wasn’t sure who Montague John Druitt was anymore.

 

         Going on missions made him afraid, but it was something he knew he had to do. What if the bloodlust was still with him? What if he killed someone and found that he still liked it? He knew he couldn’t erase everything about himself that made him a dangerous man. He was a good fighter, a killer, he knew how to take men down and this was something that he could use to help the Sanctuary. He was only now beginning to reconcile this part of himself, and was beginning to feel excited about living as a new man.

 

         Ripper. That man had called him Ripper.

 

         He opened the slip of paper and his gut lurched when he saw the message scrawled within.

 

         “From Hell. Boss, it seems you’ve grown tired and have stopped running. Don’t. No man can ever vanish completely without a trace. It’s time the world knows your name.”

 

         John trembled violently and tossed the note into the fireplace. He walked into his small bathroom and vigorously washed his hands, scraping his skin raw until every drop of blood was gone. From Hell. The only note he had ever written in a moment of foolishness and twisted arrogance.

 

         No one knew who Jack the Ripper truly was. M.J. Druitt was a favourite suspect amongst Ripperologists, but the world thought he had died by committing suicide and drowning in a river.

 

         So who was this man … how did he know? Who had written this note?

 

         What could they do to him anyway? There wasn’t a shred of evidence found to place him with the Ripper murders, and any outcry now would just be seen as fanaticism.

 

         Druitt wiped his face dry, calmer. Something disturbed him about this missive, but there was nothing he could do about it at present. He’d only sabotage himself if he lingered on it.

 

         Only briefly wondering if he had been too hasty in burning the note, John Druitt left his room to find Helen.

 

***

 

         “To young and foolish times.”

 

         “To an enduring legacy of sanctuary,” John gently corrected as he raised his glass in cheers. Helen smiled wistfully, but made no rebuttal, and sipped at the wine.

 

         The moon and stars lit the night sky, and a gentle breeze stirred the hair on her face. She had set up a small table and chairs on the Sanctuary’s rooftop so they could relax outside.

 

         “Do you remember the first time we had to fetch Griffin from the Dean’s office?” John asked.

 

         “Or the first time James drank brandy in the music hall.”

 

         John laughed with Helen at the old memories. “What was it that he thought he discovered?”

 

         Helen shook her head ruefully. “A conspiracy amongst all the breweries to keep educated men from discovering the meaning of life.”

 

         John chuckled, setting down his glass. “I’ll never forget the look on Tesla’s face when he came to pick up James in the cab. ‘Jove, I _told_ you dancing is the work of devils!’”

 

         Helen finally allowed herself to laugh and feel mirthful without restraint. The years may have passed, and some friends may not have been with her now, but she could always revive them in her memories.

 

         Druitt smiled a little sadly, seeing Helen relaxed and comfortable around him in a very long time. He looked out over the city. “I actually never expected it to be us at the end.”

 

         Helen glanced over at him. “What do you mean?”

 

         “I always thought James and Tesla would be here with us as well. Actually, I was sure James would outlive me. I never expected to die of old age … always thought it would be Scotland Yard. Or you.”

 

         Helen glanced down at her hands as she recalled the night she had shot him. The terror he had inflicted upon Whitechapel, and the betrayal and grief she had felt when she found out it was him.

 

         She also thought of Oxford … of going to see Twelfth Night … of Ashley… “It would never have been me, John.”

 

         He sat silently, and she thought she saw him tremble slightly. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her, so she reached across the table and clasped his hand.

 

         “I’m very glad you’re still here with me, John.”

 

         He looked stunned, and that made her heart ache. “Really?”

 

         “Truly.” She leaned over and kissed him softly. He was hesitant to respond at first, but when she didn’t pull away he gently kissed her back. He looked at peace for the first time in a long while.

 

         He gently clinked his glass against hers and whispered, “To the Five.”

 

         “To us.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot is afoot. Javol!

TWO

***

 

 _London, England. 1884_

“What do you mean you’re leaving? Helen was scandalized, unsure of what to do as she watched Nikola methodically packing his journals into a trunk.

 

         “Exactly that. I am on a ship to New York tomorrow. I have an offer to work with Thomas Edison. A contract for fifty-thousand dollars.”

 

         She slammed down the lid of his trunk before he could pack more of his possessions into it. He was forced to look at her. “Do you mean to tell me that you’re leaving the Five for money?”

 

         Nikola sighed, sitting down on his bed and gesturing for her to have a seat by his small writing desk. “The Five hasn’t met regularly since we all left Oxford. James is working with Scotland Yard, Griffin is robbing banks, and who knows where that lunatic Druitt is. Edison owns the largest workhouse for electric motors, generators, transmitters – _my_ work. It can’t be here anymore.”

 

         Helen hung her face in her hands. She felt a gentle fingertip under her chin, lifting her eyes up to meet his. His lips quirked into a small smile.

 

         “And you’re continuing _your_ work. Don’t despair, Helen. Should you ever need me, I would never deny your call. I’ll think you’ll find, though, that you won’t need me as often as you think.”

 

         With a gentle, ticklish kiss on her forehead, Nikola stood up and offered her his hand. He helped her to her feet and bade her farewell.

 

***

 

         “What do you think of this one?” Will held up a postcard of a penguin wearing a sombrero. Kate pulled a face and shook her head.

 

         “Try the one with Big Guy’s cousin and Elvis.”

 

         Will held up a second postcard of the famous picture of Big Foot (which actually was a hoax and a favourite joke amongst the Sasquatch community) wearing a party hat and holding Elvis Presley’s hand. Kate nodded her approval and Will scribbled a note on the back.

 

         Kate sighed. “We’re wasting so much on postage.”

 

         “I’ll remember you said that when I’m deciding whether to take you or Henry with me to Brazil next month.”

 

         Helen shook her head at the pair of them, and picked up the small pile of letters on her desk. There was an unmarked brown envelope without a return address. Curious, she searched for her letter opener.

 

         “Bringing Hank would be a waste – he’d just stay inside with his laptop. You’d be on vacation with a computer screen!”

 

         “At least Henry can surf.”

 

         Carefully slicing open the top of the envelope, Helen reached inside and found a plastic bag sealed with evidence tape. Inside the bag was a single, dark brown hair. Bemused, she searched the rest of the envelope but found nothing. No business card, no letter, no report…

 

         Was this from the FBI?

 

         “Will,” Helen said, interrupting the now ridiculous conversation he was having with Kate, “did you put in a request for evidence from any of your former colleagues?”

 

         “No.” Will looked curiously at the bagged evidence. “Who’s that from?”

 

         “I don’t know…” Helen turned the empty envelope in her hands, it refusing to reveal any clues to its origin. She looked at the bag and shrugged. “I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

 

***

 

         “Did we actually get any DNA off the hair?” Will leaned over to see the screen better.

 

         “There was just enough of a skin tag that I could build upon. It’s taken a few hours though. Initially, I can tell you it’s from a male and very old.” Helen ran through a few more preliminary tests and frowned. “It’s over a hundred years old.”

 

         “Abnormal?”

 

         Helen ran the hair’s results through the Sanctuary database and almost immediately a perfect match flashed on the screen.

 

         “The hair belongs to John.”

 

***

 

         “I think…”

 

         John nodded, already knowing what Helen was about to say. “…I have some loose ends to take care of.”

 

         With a flash of orange light, John vanished. He would have to visit his former safe houses and private accounts with a fine-tooth comb. Any further traces of John Druitt’s existence had to be destroyed and quickly.

 

         Helen had agreed with him that someone was trying to blackmail him. They had to find where his hair had been retrieved from. It was still unclear as to what else was in store … but a game was afoot. One that could end in ruination.

 

         Helen had been in too many scrapes to know never to allow your enemy to strike first.

 

         After John left, Helen joined Henry down in his lab where he had already begun a search of Interpol databases on recent evidence collection.

 

         He looked up when he saw her enter. “Nothing. There are no records of John or the hair in their records.”

 

         “Search the entire Sanctuary network – but use our blank account.”

 

         Henry’s eyebrows shot up. The blank account meant hacking into the network and encrypting their presence so no record of their activity could be detected. “You suspect an inside job?”

 

         “I don’t know … but I want to be careful.”

 

         Helen opened her account on a different computer, thinking to send some covert notes to Sanctuary colleagues she trusted, when she found a new message waiting to be reading her inbox.

 

         She frowned. Only someone from within the network could send her an email to that account. But there was no address. The email was blank as well.

 

         “Take a look at this, Henry.”

 

         He sidled over and frowned at the blank email. Furiously typing, he went through mainframe records and ghost drives on the network.

 

         “It’s … it’s a hidden message.” Henry had finally been able to pull up the original message through automated save files in the network ghost drive.

 

         It was a photograph. Of three hairs being removed from a woman’s dress. A woman who was horribly mutilated and lying prone on a bed.

 

         “Dear gods…” It was a photograph of Mary Jane Kelly, the last of the Whitechapel murders. Helen had _never_ heard of hairs being found on the crime scene … but then, forensic investigation had been in its infancy at that time.

 

         It was new evidence in the Ripper case.

 

         “Doc … there’s more…” Henry gulped as he pulled up another auto-save file from the ghost drive. The binary code had been manipulated to form one word.

 

         KNIFE.

 

         Helen felt a chill run down her back, but smiled grimly. She was not a woman intimidated easily.

 

         “There’s a reason those messages have been sent to me and not to John directly. We need to know what that reason is.”

 

         Helen figured the best way to respond to the threat was directly. She hit “reply” to the blank message and typed: what do you want?

 

         When she hit send, Henry pulled up a new screen, studying it intently. His face dropped. “You were right. The message was just received by another terminal in the Sanctuary network. I can’t tell which one or where though.”

 

         “Damn…” Things were sinister indeed if someone from inside the Sanctuary network was trying to blackmail them.

 

***

 

         John Druitt quietly thanked the woman and waited until she had left the vault before approaching his safe deposit box. He had not visited this account in over fifty years.

 

         He knew he should have destroyed it. He should never have kept it, there was no place safe to keep such an object. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t melted it down … perhaps he was afraid even that wouldn’t be enough to erase his guilt.

 

         He opened his box and looked inside. It was empty. He broke out in a cold sweat, but somehow he already knew it had been stolen.

 

         The most powerful, protected and safeguarded bank in the world, nestled in the heart of Switzerland. A fortress that even Nigel Griffin wouldn’t have been able to break into.

 

         But somehow someone had been able to enter and take the only possession he kept in his deposit box. The knife used to commit the Whitechapel murders.

 

         The implications turned slowly in his mind as he placed the box back, left the vault and thanked the teller. No one could have broken into the bank. Which meant the knife hadn’t been stolen. Someone had just taken it.

 

         Someone who had enough money to corrupt the bank … or enough power that they couldn’t be refused.

 

         John Druitt had made an unfortunate enemy.

 

***

 _Peru_

“What is it this time?” Ylena looked eagerly over Aureliano’s shoulder, unsuccessfully trying to snatch a peep of his letter before he was done with it.

 

         Aureliano laughed heartily and finally passed the postcard to Ylena. Will had drawn speech bubbles coming out of Elvis and Big Foot’s mouths, speaking as if they were Will and the Big Guy.

 

         “Which one should we send him back?”

 

         Aureliano shrugged, tucking the postcard into the breast pocket of his shirt. “I’m sure I’ll find something suitably amusing in Brazil.” He held out his arm to Ylena and she took it.

 

         They strolled through the marketplace, arms linked. Because of their exotic colouring, especially pale skin that never seemed to darken from the sun and bleached, golden hair, most assumed they were brother and sister. The arrangement was close enough to the truth that they never contradicted being referred to as such.

 

         “It will be nice to see that boy again,” Aureliano mentioned casually as they approached a certain store.

 

         “You just want someone to surf with you.”

 

         Aureliano shrugged, neither confirming nor denying. They walked into the small firearms store and closed the door behind them.

 

         Before the proprietor could greet them, Aureliano had leapt over the counter and pushed him up against the wall. Ylena sidled over, mouth hovering over his. A tendril of silver mist began to leave his mouth and he looked into her delicate face with panicked eyes.

 

         “Tell me all your secrets,” She whispered before sucking in his memories.

 

         When they exited the shop, there were no signs of a struggle. The store owner was lying on his floor, unconscious, and nothing else was disturbed. Aureliano pulled out a pair of dark glasses and placed them on his face. “Well, this means a Christmas bonus for us.”

 

         “Yes, he’ll be pleased.” Ylena sifted through the jumble of memories she had just obtained, all with information highly sought out for.

 

         “Is he still locked up in that tower of his?” Aureliano asked.

 

         Ylena laughed and merely said, “Genius is often madness.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must tip my hat off to Christopher Nolan's film "The Prestige" for the imagery of the Colorado Springs experiment. Do not own.

THREE

***

 

 _Colorado Springs, 1900_

Helen walked through the desert with a sense of trepidation. It was the dead of night and no one was about … but the air felt heavy. As if something could happen at any second.

 

         She hadn’t seen Nikola in sixteen years, and despite his promises to be available he had never once responded to any of her letters. The only information she had received about him had been through copies of American newspapers. And the headlines weren’t encouraging.

 

         She read of his brilliance, for certain. He had won the war of the currents against Edison, his former mentor. His own company now was the most sought after for inventions and patents. They were saying he would be able to wirelessly transmit voices in the future.

 

         But the newspapers also spoke of his growing eccentricities, his isolation, his very public feuds with rivals and financiers. People thought he was mad, and now the world clamored to know where he was and what he was doing. For a year he had hidden away in Colorado Springs conducting experiments that sometimes made the sky light up.

 

         Some whispered fearfully that he would tear the world apart.

 

         Helen checked her compass. She couldn’t be far from his laboratory, the needle was spinning wildly, disturbed by a powerful magnetic field. Climbing over a rocky outcrop, what Helen saw below her made her mouth fall open.

 

         In a huge clearing Helen saw rows of glass orbs that burned with bright, white light. But … there were no wires, no cords! She saw some uniformed assistants drifting through the rows of lights. Sometimes they would pick one up, and detached from the ground they ceased to glow. Replaced to their spot nestled in the earth, they illuminated once more.

 

         Helen carefully made her way down, sliding through sand and rock. She made her way to the field of lights. The assistants glanced at her curiously, but did not approach her and returned to their work.

 

         In the center of the light field was the man she had been looking for. He was pale, almost ghostly from the glow of the lights. He seemed stunned when she saw her approach and immediately brought her hand to his lips.

 

         “Helen! If I had known I would be receiving such distinguished company, I would have changed.” He winked at her.

 

         She was too in awe to play their games of banter, and instead swept her arm across the field. “Nikola, this is amazing. How are they alight?”

 

         Nikola offered her his arm, and then guided her around the field as if he were showing off a prize garden. “It is the very thing I came here to discover. Helen, the earth, this very planet itself is a power source. The earth is a _battery_.”

 

         Helen clutched at his arm in awe. “So much power…”

 

         He lifted an orb from its place in the ground and handed it to her for her to hold. She turned it over in her hands; the glass was still warm.

 

         “This just proves my idea of wireless electric transmissions. The earth itself will carry these electric waves and you and I will be able to hear a voice speaking into a transmitter from across the world. I think I will call it a wireless telecommunicator.”

 

         Helen grimaced, and seeing her expression he laughed. “No good?”

 

         “Try again,” she replied with an apologetic smile. Nikola was brilliant … but he was never good at naming his inventions.

 

         “Perhaps Teleradio waves…”

 

         Helen passed the glass sphere back to him, and placed a hand on his face. He looked a little surprised, confused of the look of concern she wore.

 

         “You fool Nikola … how much we’ve worried about you. Never answering any of my letters…”

 

         Nikola looked a little ashamed as he placed the glass lamp back into the ground. “I didn’t mean to worry you, Helen. But I’ve been too occupied to keep track of social exchanges.”

 

         Helen looked at him disapprovingly. “Oh, Nikola. Is that all we amount to?”

 

         He put a finger to his lips to shush her, panicking slightly at how to respond to her and too proud to apologize. He decided to distract her instead. He brought out a small light bulb from his pocket.

 

         “Watch this.” He held it up so she could see the copper bottom, the filament it was attached to. Holding up a finger, she saw a tiny spark leap from its tip and arc into the light bulb. It suddenly flickered and then shone in the darkness.

 

         Helen gaped, and he held up the offending finger. She could hear the mischievous glee in his voice. “Let there be light!”

 

***

 

         John’s return to the Sanctuary and his account of the missing knife was disturbing. They knew now that the message hadn’t been a bluff. When Helen told him of the messages she had received, he looked stricken.

 

         “Someone inside the network? What could they possibly want?”

 

         “And if they could access that account in Switzerland … it’s possible the Head of one of the Sanctuaries is behind this.”

 

         “Or someone using their name with access to their information,” Kate offered. Trying to lighten the mood she nudged Henry with her elbow. “Someone like you.”

 

         That triggered an idea, and Helen looked to Henry. “Run the records on the activities of all the Sanctuary Heads.”

 

         Henry looked nervous, but nodded gamely. “Blank account?”

 

         Helen nodded, and Henry ran off to get started. Will rubbed his face, stunned. “Why would someone in the network, let alone a Head, do this?”

 

         “I guess I’m not popular,” Druitt commented dryly.

 

         Helen worried at her thumbnail, trying to puzzle out the events when Henry suddenly yelped from his workstation. “Doc!”

 

         Before she could ask, Henry turned the screen so she could see an alert posted through Interpol.

 

         “This just went out five minutes ago…” He looked scared.

 

         Druitt saw the alert that had been spread to every intelligence network across the world. A brutal homicide of a young woman, twenty-seven, in Brooklyn, New York. Her throat had been deeply lacerated twice in two parallel cuts. Evidence of strangulation. Her abdomen slashed, entrails dragged out to the right side of the body. Her uterus had been removed.

 

         And his knife had been found on the scene. And fingerprints had been found on the handle.

 

         Druitt had to fight every impulse not to sink to his knees.

 

         Before anyone could truly process the enormity of the situation, one of Henry’s screens flickered into a live video feed. It was Declan of the London Sanctuary.

 

         “Magnus? What the bloody hell is going on?”

 

***

 

         “I can vouch for John’s innocence, Declan. He’s been nowhere near America this past week.”

 

         Declan wasn’t convinced. “The man can teleport anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye. Is it possible to keep track of all of his movements?”

 

         “He didn’t do it, Declan,” Helen said through grit teeth.

 

         “Fine, I’ll take your word for it. But the other Sanctuary Heads are very disturbed by these events. If this information gets out to the Press, to the governments … that the Sanctuary network is _harbouring Jack the Ripper_ …” Declan shook his head, unable to finish. “They’re meeting as we speak to discuss your position as Head of the network and whether or not you’ve been compromised.”

 

         Helen’s mouth worked furiously in incredulity and rage. “I thought we’d been over that already with the Kali incident.”

 

         Declan held up his hands in a token of surrender. “I’m compromising myself by even telling you this. Don’t shoot the messenger.”

 

         Helen was still fuming. “On what grounds is my position compromised?”

 

         “If Druitt’s guilty, then it is in allowing such free reign for a dangerous abnormal without proper containment. If he isn’t … then in allowing such evidence to slip through safe channels. We wonder if you’re allowing your personal feelings to cloud your judgment.”

 

         “ _Cloud my judgment?_ ” Helen could hear her voice rising and knew it wouldn’t help her case, but she was beyond furious.

 

         “I’m sorry, Helen. I have to join the conference call soon. Is there anything, _anything_ you could tell me that might help explain this situation?”

 

         Declan looked pleadingly at her, hoping desperately to help. Helen wanted to yell, “I’ve been set up” very badly, but she felt caution kick in. If this conspiracy had reached as high as the Sanctuary Heads … she couldn’t trust anyone. Not until she had more proof.

 

         Helplessly, she said, “I don’t know any more than you.”

 

         Declan sighed, disappointed, but smiled at her encouragingly. “Keep your head up. I’ll let you know what I can.”

 

         “Thank you, Declan.” The screen went blank.

 

         Druitt was staring at his hands, as if in some kind of trance. His voice was thick with shame. “I’m so sorry I brought this to your door, Helen.”

 

         “I already know what you’re thinking – and _don’t_ do it, John. Going into hiding won’t help anyone.”

 

         John looked ready to either weep or scream with frustration. “If I stay here then all of this is linked back to you.”

 

         Helen grasped his shoulders, forcing him to look right at her. She tried to project her confidence in him. “And if you run now, it will be the clearest admission of guilt. The Sanctuary is the safest place for you now. Besides…” Helen frowned, only now feeling safe to voice a suspicion she had. “…I think the true target is me.”

 

         Will folded his arms across his chest, his expression grave. “Someone wants to discredit you and depose you as Head of the network. But who?”

 

         The team stood huddled in the small lab, all nervous and anxious. They were caught up in something large and sinister, with no idea of where it was taking them.

 

***

 

         The phone rang in Helen’s office. Wary, she started up the program Henry had installed to trace all communications, and took a deep breath before picking up the receiver.

 

         “Magnus.”

 

         Helen heard a series of short and long tones, and realizing it was Morse code, she quickly found a pencil and began translating the message as she heard it. She shook with rage as each word was formed.

 

         From Hell. Your life work or one man. Your choice.

 

         Ire rising, Helen dropped the pencil and hissed into the receiver. “I don’t know who you think you are, but I’m _not_ intimidated by your pathetic threats. I’ve taken down people and organizations that would make you soil yourself. So if you really want to play – go ahead. Make your move. _I’ll be waiting_.”

 

         She slammed down the receiver and crumpled up the piece of paper, tossing it halfway across her room. She might have lost her temper … and that might have been foolhardy – but she was not a woman to be cowed into a corner.

 

         She checked the tracer program but only found inconclusive results. So, the dance continued.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Nikola took Helen to see Glen Miller in New York. They are dancing to "In the Mood".

FOUR

***

 

 _New York, 1921_

Helen took the offered hand a touch bashfully as she was helped out of the cab. There was already a swarm of people outside the dance hall, chatting excitedly, smoking cigarettes and calling out to friends.

 

         Nikola grinned at her cheekily, and tucked her arm into his. He had shaved his moustache, and had grown his hair a bit longer so that he could slick it back in the more American style. He had even lost his accent too.

 

         “I think red’s a mighty fine colour on you,” he whispered into her ear, admiring her auburn-brown hair. She had dyed it recently from the normal blonde, and was still a touch self-conscious about the change.

 

         “Now, you promised to behave,” she said as she swatted him away from her ear. He merely chuckled, and lead her inside the dance hall.

 

         It was packed with young people jiving and dancing in the middle of the room. The Glen Miller band stormed the stage, whipping up the energy in the room, with the man himself yelling out for people to dance.

 

         Helen felt a little star-struck and giddy to be in the hall. Nikola re-appeared by her side with two glasses of wine. “Didn’t I tell you I’d show you the fun parts of New York?”

 

         “I didn’t know you had seen any of America except the inside of your lab,” she called back cheekily.

 

         He raised an eyebrow and proceeded to knock back half of his glass. Helen mocked him, but she knew he had endured a rough decade in the new world. When the Wardenclyffe Tower had gone bankrupt the newspapers jeered at what they called “Tesla’s Million Dollar Folly”. Then had had lost the radio patent to Marconi. The final blow came with the rekindled feud between him and Edison when rumours began of their nominations for the Nobel Prize. Ultimately, neither had won.

 

         Helen wished she could have been there for him through those hard times, but a humiliated Tesla was a wounded one. In response, he had locked himself away in his room at the Waldorf hotel and entertained no one but his pigeons.

 

         Finally, after licking his wounds, he’d regained some of his former spirit. Helen suspected he had found something new to work on. Scientific discovery put him in a good mood.

 

         “Hurry up with that.” He nodded impatiently to her wine glass, downing the rest of his. Not to be outdone, and feeling like this particular night was meant for some mischief, Helen quickly and neatly drained her glass.

 

         Nikola swept her into his arms and lead her to the dance floor.

 

         They swung and grooved and jived in a crowd of youth, exuberance and mad energy. The atmosphere of the hall was infectious. Helen couldn’t recall the last time she had so much fun. She forgot about her cares, her responsibilities and her troubles completely for a precious few hours.

 

         She had never seen Nikola so uninhibited before. Normally, crowds of people made him distinctly uncomfortable. And she had no idea he could dance! But this didn’t seem to be his first time at the venue. Perhaps he enjoyed escaping here, where no one knew who he was, or didn’t care.

 

         He twirled her with a little more force than she expected, and Helen found herself colliding into his chest with a giggle. He was more solid than she expected, considering how slender he was. He wrapped his arm around her waist, grasping her free hand, and led them to the music.

 

         “You smell good,” he purred into her ear, and laughed when she kicked his shin.

 

         They were pressed right up against each other, and lightheaded and giddy, Helen felt almost drunk. Not on the wine, which they both had little of, but of the night. Enjoying the warmth and feel of being held by someone, she cradled her head on his shoulder.

 

         Nikola looked down in surprise, but gave her hand a light squeeze. His breath stirred the hair around her ear and she felt goose bumps travel up her neck.

 

         Lifting her head up, Helen looked into his dark eyes, they were curious but smiling, and she pressed her lips to his.

 

         She felt him still underneath her, in shock, and he turned to stone as if afraid to make the slightest movement. She kissed him softly, teasingly, until the poor wretch was forced to respond. She could feel him trembling.

 

         She knew Nikola had not always been celibate, but the state was more comfortable to him. Why need a woman when he had electricity? He found relationships distracting to his work. It was only now that he seemed to be allowing himself more normal social conventions (like friends and _fun_ for pity’s sake) but she could tell this was making him very uncomfortable. Poor lamb might start panicking at any second.

 

         He kissed tentatively back, the hand on her waist only now allowing itself to squeeze her lightly. She could feel the heat rising on his face, and surprised him with a sly swipe of her tongue across his lower lip.

 

         He drew back, flushed. Nikola could hear her heart beating rapidly. He could smell her blood, how it seemed to sing hotter, how it pounded just beneath her skin. He knew if this went any further…

 

         “I think I need some fresh air,” he mumbled. Helen’s eyes lowered, but she quickly recovered with a smile. Too noble by half. Who would have guessed?

 

         “Yes, I have a ship to catch tomorrow.” She insisted he lead her out by the arm at least, and he hailed her a cab. She could tell he was still mildly shaken, but he kissed her quickly on the cheek before her cab sped away in the mist.

 

         She wouldn’t see him again until the war.

 

***

 

         Tension ran high through the Sanctuary over the next few days. Everyone was on edge, not hearing a word or sigh from their mysterious predator, but knowing something was coming. The silence was worse, as if signaling something more sinister brewing to come.

 

         Henry’s lab floor was littered with empty energy drink cans, and even then Helen found him asleep at his keyboard once a day. Kate spent all of her time in the gym working out her frustrations on the several leather punching bags. Will had his ear permanently glued to the phone trying to find out what he could from his friends in the FBI.

 

         And John paced endlessly in his room like a lion trapped in a cage.

 

         Henry kept a live watch on the activities of he other Sanctuary Heads, but so far they yielded no results. He had been blocked out of those feeds, and try as he might he couldn’t break the encryption. He worked simultaneously on trying to keep all traces of Druitt’s file in the network from going to the major intelligence networks.

 

         But it was daunting. They couldn’t tell what had already gone out, and what a Sanctuary Head might have already coped from the network database.

 

         Helen was determined they would not play the game by someone else’s rules. She ran all the counter-measures she could, blocking off her own Sanctuary’s files from the other Heads and running what interference she could to Interpol.

 

         Unable to stand his unease and frustration any longer, Druitt made his way up to the gym. He could already hear the determined slaps and grunts of someone working grimly from the hallway.

 

         When he walked in, Kate was already dripping with sweat, her teeth grit together. She glanced up briefly to see Druitt enter the room, and went back to deliver a flying kick to the bag in front of her.

 

         “I think it’s dead,” Druitt intoned dryly.

 

         She smirked at that, but delivered three more fast blows with her fists before leaving the bag and searching for her towel. She sat down on a press-bench heavily, panting lightly as she wiped her face.

 

         “Do you want a beer?” She asked.

 

         “Perhaps.”

 

         Kate gestured to a small fridge tucked in the corner of the room. Druitt found a half-full case of beer inside, and pulled out two cans, passing one to her. She deftly cracked it open and took a long swig.

 

         “This sucks for you, doesn’t it?” She looked thoughtfully over at him.

 

         Druitt chuckled half-heartedly. “Yes, I suppose the appropriate term is _sucks_.”

 

         “I know what it’s like to have your past come back to haunt you.”

 

         Druitt sipped carefully at his beer, sitting down beside her. “One far less gory.”

 

         She nodded in agreement, but looked at him thoughtfully. “Yeah, but I still know it’s a lie when people tell you that it isn’t your fault. That you had no choice. And what it’s like to live with that.”

 

         Druitt looked at her with surprise, but felt a rush of gratitude and understanding for the clever, if somewhat coarse woman sitting beside him. Perhaps they were thrown together on missions so often because of this understanding. They both knew someone had to do what no one else could in good conscience. They both knew what it was to crave forgiveness, but never receive it from themselves.

 

         The lights suddenly flickered in the gym and then turned off, plunging them into darkness.

 

         “What?” Kate set down her can and stood up as the back up lights flickered on. She pulled out her phone. “Hank? What just happened?”

 

         “The entire Sanctuary just lost power and shut down.”

 

         She smirked. “Were you downloading porn again?”

 

         “Ha. Ha.”

 

         Kate snapped her phone shut and she and John jogged down the halls to try and reach the main lab. The hallways were dim, also running on back-up power, and when they reached the door it wouldn’t budge.

 

         “Damn.” Kate kicked the door one last time for good measure.

 

         Druitt looked about him, feeling uneasy. “Is it a normal occurrence for the entire Sanctuary to suddenly _shut down_ without warning?”

 

         Kate looked grim. “Sabotage?”

 

         “I have to find Helen.” Druitt closed his eyes for a second, as if searching for something. He then muttered “shield’s down” and vanished in a flash of orange light. Kate silently wished him good luck and went to find another exit off the floor.

 

***

 

         Druitt finally found her in the main laboratory, frantic at her keyboard. The robotic arms that extended from the ceiling were blasting lasers through the walls and equipment of their own accord.

 

         “John!” She looked shocked to see him there, and looked back to her screen in panic. “Someone has activated the Sanctuary’s self-destruct and overwritten my codes.”

 

         He darted his way over to her, navigating his way through overturned furniture and broken glass. “How much time?”

 

         “Forty-five seconds…”

 

         His face hardened into a grim mask of determination. He knew that given the choice she’d stay with her lab, but he was going to take the decision out of her hands.

 

         “I have to get them out, John!” Helen bellowed, already able to anticipate his thoughts. She punched in a series of codes, eyes flicking nervously to the countdown listing twenty seconds remaining.

 

         There was a series of loud “ _clinks_ ” as cage doors opened. Abnormals swarmed out of their containers and out of the lab. Before she could linger over some other noble task to perform, John grabbed her hand and teleported before the countdown hit zero.

 

         They reappeared half a mile away in Old City and heard an explosion in the distance. A trail of black smoke curled upward into the sky.

 

         Helen sank to her knees, weeping over the destruction of her home, haven to all – now destroyed.

 

***

 

         “We were very lucky … the hospital tells me Henry will be released tomorrow.” Helen sat with her team, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

 

         John had managed to find them all and taken them to one of the safe houses Helen had in Old City. The self-destruct had been concentrated to the main laboratory. Only Henry had been close enough to the explosion to be injured, and he was one lucky wolf that he had only broken his arm and received minor contusions, rather than being buried.

 

         Helen had picked her way through the rubble in a daze before John firmly took her away.

 

         Thankfully, most of the Sanctuary remained intact. The main lab was gone, along with parts of the east wing. The abnormals housed there … some had escaped and she didn’t know where they had gone.

 

         The others … she would bury them with all the dignity they were due.

 

         “This is my fault,” she whispered quietly so only John could hear. “They’re dead because of me.”

 

         John shook her shoulders lightly, eyes boring into hers. “ _Don’t_. Don’t even think it. This is the work of a madman. If you had just rolled over, could you even imagine what would happen if the Sanctuary was under their control?”

 

         Helen remained silent, but she squeezed his hand firmly in thanks. It was exactly what she needed to hear, and to John’s pleasure, he saw a fire light in her eyes.

 

         “We have a lot of work to do,” Helen began as she addressed her dejected team, a dangerous undercurrent of steel in her voice, “and the first order of business if to write up my obituary.”

 

         Will blinked sluggishly a few times; unsure if he had heard her correctly. “Your _obituary?_ ”

 

         “Yes. Put it in a ‘confidential’ message to Declan that our Sanctuary was attacked, that I died in the explosion, and John has gone into hiding.”

 

         Kate slowly broke into a grin, tapping the side of her nose knowingly. “You want to flush them out.”

 

         “We’ll act as if I’m still alive to the rest of he world, but the horrible truth will only be privy through safe Sanctuary channels … who ever has been targeting me will make their move once they think that I’m gone.” Helen sat straighter, confidence returning to her in a rush. Someone had attacked her home, her family, and those under her care. They were going to very quickly find out what it was to intrude on her own.

 

         “Helen Magnus.” Will gestured grandly in the air with his best formal announcer’s voice. “Doctor, scientist, legacy. And best tipper at Alfredo’s.”

 

         Helen laughed with her team, feeling the exquisite companionship and intimacy of a true family.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two funerals. And a manhunt.

FIVE

 

 _New York, 1943_

No one noticed the woman in the cemetery that watched the funeral from afar. She held onto a small black umbrella and stood quietly to herself under a tree.

 

         _It’s a travesty_ , she thought, _how few people are here_.

 

         Most of the funeral procession was made up of journalists. Even then, there couldn’t have been more than ten people surrounding the coffin. The priest scattered a few handfuls of earth over the coffin and finished his sermon.

 

         She didn’t know where he was, what he was doing or if she would ever see him again.

 

         Well, these were uncertain times. Even now she had risked a great deal to be here instead of in England supporting the war effort. The tide had begun to turn to he Allied Forces favour … but war was unpredictable and she daily lived with the question if she would see tomorrow.

 

         _Wherever you are, you mad bastard, I bet you’re laughing. Insufferable._

Tesla had disappeared, rumouredly after a private meeting with Eisenhower where he presented the president with one of his inventions and claimed his work for the war effort was done. That America had as much won the war with his brilliance and he now had more important things to do.

 

         Helen wondered if he was even alive. He had to be … Nikola Tesla could even talk his way out of death. But the thought made her squirm that he might be the first one of the Five that was gone.

 

         There was a sudden clap of thunder and the skies rumbled. The funeral attendants ran for cover, shielding themselves from the sudden downpour.

 

         Helen saw a brilliant flash of lighting streak through the sky. She found herself smiling, suddenly reassured of her doubts. There was no lighting, no electricity, without a mad Serbian somewhere in the world dancing around in it.

 

***

 

         Helen’s team picked their way through the Sanctuary, after having picked up Henry first thing in the morning. The Big Guy walked protectively beside him even though the immediate threat was gone. Will had already spoken to Declan, and temporary Headship of the Sanctuary had been transferred to him.

 

         “Damn,” Kate muttered under her breath as they walked carefully through the Sanctuary’s walls. The building was dark and deadly quiet.

 

         They had a lot of work ahead of them, but Helen was still counting her blessings on how lucky they had been.

 

         “First, we’ll have to restore power. Next, try to find our residents. I’ll contact some builders to repair damages…” Helen focused the beam of her flashlight on the ceiling to check for any structural faults. “And then we’ll put out a bounty to every mercenary group and criminal organization to track down my supposed killer.”

 

         Will was incredulous. “You want us to work _with_ these guys?”

 

         Helen smiled dangerously. “This is war, Will. With those groups harassing the Sanctuary network, it will hopefully cover our own activities and provide enough distraction to keep our would-be-nemesis from attempting any more mischief for a while.”

 

         Will whispered to John, “Hell hath no fury…” and got a dry chuckle in response.

 

         “Oh, _come on_.” Henry pleaded with his portable tablet, giving it an irritated smack.

 

         “Technical difficulties?” Kate asked bemusedly.

 

         “It just froze.” His tablet screen had gone blank and he fiddled with the controls to no avail. The screen flickered a few times and suddenly it began to play music. “What…”

 

         Everyone’s mobile phone began playing music from tiny speakers as well. Will and Kate pulled their phones out confused. The screens were blank and wouldn’t respond to any commands. All the electronic devices were playing the same song in synchronization.

 

         Helen’s eyes widened, her head shaking, unable to believe…

 

         “The roof.”

         When the Sanctuary team made it up to the roof, it was to see all of Old City taken over by the same phenomenon. All screens were blank, traffic lights blinked, and the entire city had halted to a standstill. People on the streets stood and gazed about in wonder at what was happening.

 

         Lightning flashed across the sky despite there being no rain. And from every device that could transmit sound, the same song played, rising in an eerie chorus that brought tears to Helen’s eyes.

 

         Billie Holiday crooned, “ _Night and day, you are the one, the only thing beneath the moon and under the stars…_ ”

 

***

 

         From what they learned afterward, the phenomenon had been worldwide.

 

         For seven minutes and thirty-four seconds all satellites, broadcast towers, communication networks, and mainframes had been hacked by an unknown signal. Every device that operated though wired or wireless transmissions played the same recording by Billie Holiday. All traffic lights, building lights and signs flickered. And lighting struck every continent contrary to climate conditions.

 

         Just as suddenly as it began, it ended and everything resumed to normal. Nation’s governments were sent into panic that such a total global hijack of systems was even possible. Every effort was being made to discover the source. Emergency news alerts monopolized every channel to report on the incident.

 

         The Internet positively exploded with buzz over what had just occurred. Fanatical cultists were calling it the end of the world. Extra-terrestrial groups flocked to Roswell and Area 51 believing aliens would finally make their presence known. Conspiracy theories bred like Nubbins in heat, and already people were clamoring over the event and staging their own mini-tributes.

 

         In the midst of it all, Helen Magnus stood alone in knowing what it actually meant. It had been intended for her, after all.

 

 _“The day you die, Helen … I’ll make sure the entire world lights up.”_

 

         Helen asked everyone to leave her alone, and she sat by herself on her rooftop. She was too stunned to speak, to even truly think about what had just transpired.

 

         Nikola was alive. And after thinking she herself had died, he had unleashed the most dramatic and overwhelming tribute for her funeral than she thought a single man capable of.

 

         There were too many questions. How was he still alive? How had he escaped the collapsed temple? What had happened in the chamber?

 

         Where was he now? What was he doing? Why hadn’t he let her know that he was alive? Why had he never come to see her?

 

         She wasn’t quite sure why but Helen felt her heart ache deeply.

 

***

 

         “I hate to tell you this, Doc, but if the CIA, NASA, MI6 _and_ the UN couldn’t figure out where that transmission came from … then there’s zero chance I’ll be able to do any better.”

 

         Helen was calm outwardly, but everyone could tell something was wrong. She had gone too quiet, too cold … something was simmering under her cool façade and it was deciding to harden into betrayal and anger.

 

         “Run a search on every company that’s been founded in the past two years. Telecommunications, military-industrial, alternative energy, industrial development … anything in that family.”

 

         Henry nodded dumbly, beginning to run his searches, and afraid to voice the suspicions he had. Helen could sense him squirming and gave him a knowing look. “I don’t bite, Henry.”

 

         Sheepishly, he kept his eyes trained on his work before tentatively asking, “Does this have anything to do with genius?”

 

         “Yes.” The finality in her tone kept Henry from pressing further. His search began sending back results and he read them out.

 

         “Sister company of Warner telecommunications—”

 

         “No. Next.”

 

         “New Haliburton branch opened in—“

 

         “Next.”

 

         Henry frowned, scratching his head as she skimmed over existing corporations. One company finally leapt of the screen. “Lighthouse Industries. Patent development specializing in commercial industrialism.”

 

         Helen went very still. “Where are they based?”

 

         “Buenos Aires.”

 

         Helen let out a shaky breath, her eyes closing briefly. “Get my plane ready, please.” She was going to Argentina.

 

***

 

         Helen didn’t sleep a wink during the flight. She stared out the plane window, watching cloud after endless cloud rolled by, caught in a daze.

 

         She still wasn’t sure how she felt. Curiously, she was numb. Only slightly trembling on the inside, but mostly hollow. The only thing that seized her without question was an overwhelming imperative to see him with her own eyes.

 

         And possibly wring his neck.

 

         When she stepped off the plane she used a fake passport, and covered her face with dark sunglasses and a headscarf. She was supposed to be dead, after all, and something told her this would all be in vain if she revealed herself.

 

         She rented a motorcycle in a busy market square, and tore down the bustling roads. Wind whipped through her hair. There were flashes of strange aromas, spices, young children kicking soccer balls, and trees. Normally, she would have wanted to stop and admire the beauty of the hot, exotic country. But her heart was filled with a single purpose, somehow heavy, weighting her thoughts.

 

         She stopped only once to buy a bottle of Argentinean wine, which she stowed away in her satchel before setting off on the road again.

 

         It was late afternoon when she arrived at the home base of Lighthouse Industries. It was a renovated warehouse with one distinct landmark: an enormous tower that rose from the center and stood almost a storey high. It reminded her of the Wardenclyffe tower.

 

         Parking her motorcycle, Helen scouted the perimeter of the facilities, noting all of its entry and exit points. Selecting a door that held a blind spot from the surveillance cameras, she quickly picked the lock and slipped inside.

 

         The place was enormous. She saw vast machines that seemed to run on no visible power source littered about the warehouse floor. She couldn’t even begin to guess at their purpose.

 

         She quickly made her way across the work floor and found the entrance to the laboratories and offices. Almost immediately she found the door labeled “Dr. Macak”. She grinned a little at that. Nikola often used his old cat as a pseudonym.

 

         Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, bracing herself for whatever could be on the other side.

 

         The office was empty.

 

         The furniture was scattered, papers strewn on the floor and a few books toppled over on the shelves. The occupant had evacuated rather quickly.

 

         Bastard! How could he have known she was coming?

 

         And why _run? Coward!_

 

         Helen closed the door behind her and let her head fall against it with a loud “thump”! Nikola had always been good at disappearing when he didn’t want to be found.

 

         She had come all this way, leaving behind her ruined Sanctuary … for this. An empty room.

 

         Frustrated, Helen kicked aside a pile of loose papers with her foot. A piece of paper, heavier than the rest, skidded across the floor. Curious, Helen bent down and picked up what turned out to be a postcard.

 

         It had the image of a young man surfing with the tentacles of a giant squid rising out behind him. It was addressed to “Aureliano” in Will’s handwriting. “Don’t get eaten!”

 

         Helen pocketed the postcard and walked out of the office with a predatory edge to her step.

 

         It seemed she had to pay a visit to the Sybarites.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drinking wine in Chile...

SIX

***

 

         Ylena felt the muzzle of a gun press against the back of her head. Her expression didn’t change a hair, and she calmly took another sip of her spiced rum before setting her glass down on the table.

 

         “I could hear you breathing from a half-mile away, Doctor.”

 

         “Where is he?”

 

         Ylena gestured to the seat in front of her. “Please, Doctor, have a seat. We’re beginning to draw unwanted attention.”

 

         Helen saw men reaching into their coats out of the corner of her eye. She smoothly holstered her pistol and took the offered seat. The riverside bar eased back into its normal ebb and flow.

 

         “Your men?” she asked coolly.

 

         Ylena merely quirked a delicate eyebrow, before pouring Helen a tumbler of rum. “No, merely men aware of the work I do.”

 

         Helen was beginning to wonder at the seeming young woman who sat before her. Ylena seemed completely at ease with her surroundings, and not at all fazed by the uncharacteristically hostile manner in which she had been greeted. Helen had tracked the Sybarites through some unsavoury channels and it unsettled her. What were Ylena and Aureliano doing that they had dealings with the cartels and crime lords that had once threatened their sacred temple?

 

         Why were they being so elusive now?

 

         “ _Where is he?_ ” Helen repeated, the cool edge unwavering from her voice.

 

         “I cannot tell you.”

 

         “Can’t or won’t?”

 

         Ylena removed the dark glasses from her face, her eyes akin to two drops of black oil. There was concern and genuine like in her expression. “I heard you had died, Doctor. I mourned your passing.”

 

         Helen felt something in her soften. She was tired of seeing betrayal in every corner. Ylena and Aureliano had once been part of her Sanctuary … she still wanted to see them as her friends. “Ylena, what’s going on?”

 

         “Doctor … I owe you my life. I will never forget what you did for me. I cannot. It is a duty I accepted, witnessed by the Lady herself.”

 

         Helen bit back hot tears. “You told me he died.”

 

         Ylena’s nostrils flared slightly, but she kept her eyes locked with Helen’s. “To my knowledge, he had. I did not lie to you.”

 

         Helen sat stunned, still faced with more questions no matter how many steps further along to the truth she thought she had gotten. Ylena pulled out a sleek, mobile phone and quickly sent a message. She looked encouragingly at the untouched tumbler of rum in front of Helen.

 

         Helen waved it away. “What have you two been doing here?”

 

         Ylena shrugged and downed Helen’s glass herself, eyelids fluttering slightly as she savoured the taste. “Corporate spies. We’ve discovered information to be a most lucrative business.”

 

         That certainly explained a few things. Helen regarded Ylena thoughtfully … the Sybarite’s moral compass was a hard thing to grasp. It was sometimes difficult to remember Ylena and Aureliano were over five thousand years old, but that would certainly lend a very different perspective on life than most people were used to.

 

         “Doctor.” Helen turned to see Aureliano suddenly standing beside her. He immediately dropped to his knees, taking her hand. “I was much aggrieved at the news of your death. I am so glad my sorrow was unfounded.”

 

         Helen blushed slightly at the outpouring, and Aureliano slid into the vacant chair. He pushed a strand of golden hair behind his ear, it reached his shoulders now, and looked at Helen earnestly. “To what do we owe your company? And how is William?”

 

         “He enjoys your postcards very much. He was excited to see you next month.” Helen found his earnest nature endearing.

 

         “Was?” Aureliano looked hurt. “He isn’t coming anymore?”

 

         Helen looked around nervously. She was a fish out of water here, she did not know what would be out of place in this quaint little bar. “How many ears do we have here?” she asked instead.

 

         They understood immediately, and Aureliano went still for a moment, listening. “Too many. Whisper under your breath, we will still hear you.”

 

         _The Sanctuary has been attacked. We are being sabotaged by someone in the network. We have to focus on that right now_.

 

         Aureliano and Ylena both exhaled sharply at the same time, growls rising from their throats. Despite some withheld secrets, Helen felt heartened that the Sybarites were still firmly loyal to the Sanctuary. Ylena looked at Aureliano, and they both stared at each other in silence for a moment. Helen understood they were having a conversation purely through a complex and subtle language comprised entirely of facial movements.

 

         Aureliano sighed deeply, and then looked back at Helen. She could tell from his body language that he did this reluctantly, but there was no resentment towards her. “I am not bound by the same duty as Ylena, though I have observed it as such.”

 

         Aureliano beckoned Helen closer and whispered into her ear, “Right now is the season for Chilean cabernet. There are certain wineries that celebrate the uncorking of the year’s first bottles.”

 

         “Thank you…”

 

         Aureliano and Ylena both clasped her hands at the same time. “We may have changed since last we met, but our memories are too good to forget a friend,” Ylerin said affectionately, lightly teasing her.

 

         Helen was again struck by the feeling of being in the presence of two very old beings – a feeling that was very rare for her especially. Aureliano suddenly snapped his fingers as if just recalling something, and dug a postcard out of his pocket.

 

         It was of a man being chased by a hippopotamus. Aureliano had scribbled “Will” on the man’s t-shirt. He grinned and said, “Give this to William please?”

 

***

 

         “Gracias…” Nikola leaned back into his chair, pushing up the sunglasses perched on his nose. He gently swirled the wine in the tasting glass. The sun was warm instead of blisteringly hot, and a balmy breeze weaved through the leafy grape vines.

 

         He didn’t believe in heaven, but this was close enough to it.

 

         “What do you think of the white, señor?” The owner of the vineyard brought over the opened bottle, setting it down to breathe.

 

         Nikola sighed happily. “I think you don’t make enough of it.” He was one of only a few private investors in the vineyard, and he enjoyed the input it allowed him in the creative process.

 

         The quality sampling was a distinctively enjoyable perk too.

 

         “It is a dying race of men, señor, that can appreciate the more sophisticated joys of life.”

 

         Nikola grinned; he enjoyed this man immensely. He closed his eyes and basked in the sun. He felt nothing save the gentle warmth on his face. He tasted nothing except the lingering acidity on his tongue. He heard nothing except for the gentle creak of swaying vines and the soft fall of footsteps.

 

         Footsteps?

 

         Nikola leaned his head forward and pushed his sunglasses up into his hair. The row of grape vines rustled as someone approached the clearing. Nikola stared in silent wonder as Helen slipped out from swaying vines, waxy leaves caressing her face and blood-red globes falling to the ground at her feet. She looked like a mirage shimmering in a desert. At first he wasn’t sure if she were even real.

 

         But there she was, in the flesh. And to her surprise, he tossed his glass to the ground with a curse and got up from his chair. Before she could call out, he briskly walked away and vanished into the vineyard.

 

         Bemused, Helen stood in shock before her brain finally caught up and she plunged in after him.

 

         “Nikola, _wait_.” She caught up to him in the small forest of grape vines and took hold of his arm. He suddenly whirled around to face her, livid.

 

         “You’re supposed to be dead!”

 

         She looked at him incredulously. “Are you really that sore that I’ve used one of your favourite party tricks?”

 

         He stood silently fuming. Helen was flabbergasted, this certainly wasn’t the reaction she had expected. When he refused to say anything, she slapped him smartly across the cheek. “ _You’re_ supposed to be dead too. You’ve let me go a year thinking we buried you in that temple!”

 

         “Was the funeral as nice as the last one?” he sneered.

 

         Helen shook with rage. “I cannot believe you, Nikola.”

 

         They stared at each other in a standstill; both furious, both proud, and Helen realized that they wouldn’t get anywhere like this. She dug into her bag and slapped the bottle of wine into his hand.

 

         “I got that when I thought you were in Argentina.”

 

         Nikola looked at her warily, before allowing himself to examine the label. “Ah … I know this brewer. His zinfandel’s better.”

 

         Helen sighed and crouched, finding a spot to sit on the ground. “Just open the bloody thing.”

 

         Still wary, and she wished she knew where his trepidation was coming from, he slowly sat down beside her and uncorked the bottle with a sharp tug of his teeth. He drank a mouthful from the neck, then passed the bottle to her.

 

         “What are you doing here, Nikola?” Helen asked, taking a deep sip from the bottle. “ _How_ are you even here?”

 

         Nikola shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m working. Obviously. And finally making some money from my inventions, too. It’s only taken a century…”

 

         “How are you still alive?”

 

         Nikola’s face darkened and he shot back petulantly, “How are you?”

 

         “I asked first!”

 

         “Well, I have only one thing to say to that.” Nikola blew a wet raspberry at her, and then in a sulk drank more wine.

 

         Helen hung her head with a sigh. He was absolutely impossible sometimes. She grabbed the bottle from him, it was already a quarter gone, and drank some more before he could finish it all to himself. “That was quite some lights show I got for my funeral.”

 

         Nikola looked away from her, but she thought she had seen him wince. Curious. She reached for his shoulder, but he shrugged her away. “No flirting … and you haven’t tried to kiss me once. I’m almost insulted.”

 

         He smirked a little at that, but still couldn’t look at her. He sighed instead and worked out a pinched muscle in his neck, flexing his hands. “I don’t like being caught off-guard – it’s distracting, I suppose. Rest assured, you still look great for two-hundred.”

 

         “One hundred and sixty.”

 

         “ _Women_.”

 

         Helen finally laughed, missing the way they bickered at each other. He was reminding her now more of the snarky, glib young man she had known at Oxford. Her friend. He reached over and cradled his hand against her cheek, a torn look on his face. When he spoke his voice was deadly quiet.

 

 

         “Why are you here?”

 

         Helen blinked in confusion, unsure of his question. “I wanted to see you, I wanted to know you were actually alive.”

 

         “But why? What were you thinking of doing when you found me?”

 

         “I – I …” Helen stammered.

 

 

         “You don’t know.” Nikola finished for her. “Are you here to take me back? Back to Old City? Back to the Sanctuary?”

 

         She found herself unable to speak, unable to move as Nikola brushed a stray lock of her hair away from her face. He then dropped his hand, recoiling as if he were burnt. “I won’t come back, sorry to disappoint.”

 

         “Why not?” she blurted out before realizing.

 

         His brow furrowed, concern uncharacteristically naked on his face. “Are you in trouble? Are you in danger?”

 

         Helen wished she could tell him everything that had happened. Drop the assured, confident front she had to keep up in front of her team. Tell him she was scared of what was happening to her. Scared of her faceless adversary and that everything she had worked so hard for could be taken away.

 

         But something, perhaps her pride, kept her from unburdening herself. She still didn’t know what he was keeping from her. Why he had decided to vanish again without a word.

 

         Nikola saw she wasn’t going to respond and a shadow fell over his face. Some of his biting sarcasm returned. “Just force of habit then. I’m afraid I can’t indulge you at this time, Helen. You’ll need to find someone else to banter with. Maybe Druitt’s developed a sense of humour.”

 

         His words stung more than she cared to admit, and she felt her face harden. “It’s a refreshing change from your barbarous wit.”

 

         Nikola laughed mirthlessly, clutching his heart as if she had wounded him. “Ah, the lady still has bite. I’m proud of you. Enjoy your holiday and make sure you pay your respects to the proprietor.” Nikola got to his feet, brushing dirt from his pant legs. Helen refused his offered hand and rose to her feet without aid. She turned from him and made her way out of the vineyard, biting back a frustrated scream.

 

         When she chanced a look over her shoulder, there was no sign of him amongst the forest of vines.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The gang's all back together again...

SEVEN

***

 

         “You’re a fool.” Nikola winced as Ylena slapped him up the back of his head. He rubbed the back of his head ruefully.

 

         “ _Watch_ the suit.” That only earned him a second cuff, harder than the last one. He growled, “You’ve picked up a bad habit from the hairy butler. It’s unbecoming of a lady.”

 

         Ylena snorted. “I’ll behave like a lady around you once you stop acting like a child. The Sanctuary needs your help.”

 

         “She didn’t ask for it.” He winced, waiting for the next blow, but it didn’t come. Ylena just shook her head at him instead.

 

         “Fine. Hide here in your vineyards because you don’t like being asked questions that make you uncomfortable. Keep your precious secrets—”

 

         Nikola grit his teeth, “You don’t understand…”

         “And you don’t want to enlighten anyone,” she snapped back. “Do what you will. But know that Aurelian and I are on a red-eye flight back to Old City. We do not forget our friends.” With that Ylena patted him on the cheek with more force than necessary and left the office.

 

         Nikola huffed irritably as she sat alone at his desk, fingers steepled under his chin. He looked outside his window and saw a flock of pigeons fly by.

 

***

 

 _The Chamber of Silver, One Year Ago_

The ceiling of the chamber collapsed around him, and he had to fight every impulse not to run away. The black presence in his mind screamed, wanting to be free of the chamber and furious that he wasn’t trying to save himself.

 

         A large chunk of rock fell on the back of his head, and he fell into the shallow pool, pinned. The breath was knocked from his lungs and black stars exploded in front of his eyes.

 

         More rocks fell, buying him, and his body twitched. He couldn’t breathe, and he slipped gratefully into an inky void of endless sleep where there was no more pain. His heart stopped beating.

 

         The energy elemental fled from his body, unwilling to remain in a dead host. It looked like a swarm of black flies as it rushed out of his nose and swirled upwards, trying to find its way out of the temple.

 

         What no one saw in the heart of the falling chamber was a small silvery wisp left behind from the elemental. It curled upwards and vanished inside Nikola’s mouth. His eyes opened and his heart felt like it was going to explode.

 

         _:Fight.:_

The floor of the circular pool suddenly began to slide open, revealing a chasm the water disappeared into. Lightheaded, and unable to breathe, Nikola grappled with his throat and the rock pinning him. Lights exploding in front of his eyes, Nikola finally managed to push the rock from him with a superhuman effort.

 

         He pulled himself into the tunnel and found himself falling. His breath returned in violent gasps and he felt himself colliding into freezing water.

 

         Nikola slipped into unconsciousness again. When he next woke he was slumped against a riverbank. He blinked sluggishly, and saw a stone culvert the water was running out from. It had some runes carved around the edge.

 

         Nikola heaved dryly, spitting out some water. Weakly, he crawled up out of the water and collapsed onto the grass. He felt the back of his head and discovered a deep gash that was still oozing blood. He growled, feeling his joints crack as he set his multiple fractures straight. At least he was healing.

 

         Dizzy, he looked up at the night sky. He wasn’t sure how, but he was alive. He could swear he heard the faint sound of a woman laughing.

 

***

 

         Helen woke, blinking sleepily. She hadn’t realized that she had dozed off, and when she looked out the window it was to see the plane still parked on the airstrip. She was mildly confused, the plane was supposed to be in the air twenty minutes ago.

 

         She pressed the key to the intercom. “What’s the reason for the delay?”

 

         “Boarding a new passenger, Doctor Magnus,” the pilot replied.

 

         New passenger? This was Helen’s private jet.

 

         The answer became clear when Nikola Tesla made his way down the aisle, brushing an invisible speck of dust from his immaculate suit jacket. He winked at her and sat down in the seat beside her.

 

         “I thought you weren’t coming,” Helen said coolly, trying to mask her surprise.

 

         “And here I am. You … me … completely alone thousands of miles in the air for several hours. People will talk.”

 

         Helen felt herself blush and her mouth dropped open, incredulous. A day ago he’d been moody, withdrawn and hurtful. Now he was back to smirking, perfectly pitched sardonic form. She could only shake her head in wonder.

 

         He merely grinned, his fingers playing with the edge of his armrest. “I’m completely at your mercy … I only ask you to be creative.”

 

         “And what brought about this change of heart?”

 

         He grinned. “I like having you owe me. I like collecting … with interest.”

 

         Helen mock-pouted at him. “I thought friends were supposed to help each other out of the goodness of their hearts.”

 

         Nikola whispered cryptically, “I never said I was a good friend.”

 

***

 

         “Like the feel of the wind through your hair?”

 

         Druitt skimmed his fingers over his smooth head with a wry grin. The wing whipped through Kate’s hair, buffeting it about and obscuring her face. They both stood on the rooftop watching the night skyline.

 

         “Penny for your thoughts,” Kate pressed.

 

         Druitt absent-mindedly kicked a pebble off the edge of the roof. “My thoughts at present aren’t worth anything.”

 

         He suddenly stiffened, staring at something on the ground. “What is it?” Kate asked, peering over the edge and trying to follow his line of sight.

 

         “Someone is at the door.”

 

***

 

         Will only had a chance to see a flash of gold hair before he was swept up into a fierce hug. Aureliano let out a barking laugh before slapping him heartily on the back.

 

         “I have not been eaten by a giant squid yet.”

 

         “I’ve got to admit, I did not expect to see you here, buddy.” Will laughed, hurrying them inside. Henry gulped slightly when Ylena, or Ylerin, brushed past him with a smile.

 

         “Do you have a record of Declan’s message?” she asked Henry. His brain had gone fuzzy for a moment, he still nurtured a small crush for her, and the blank look on his face made her chuckle.

 

         “Aurelian and I can read facial expressions better than you can. We can check for any deception?”

 

         “Right.” Henry quickly trotted off to his lab with Ylerin in tow, glancing a quick look at Will who gave him a jokey thumbs-up.

 

         “How did you guys know?” Will walked with Aurelian to the kitchen where he grabbed some sodas for the both of them. They sat down at the table.

 

         “Your Sanctuary was blown up, William … word travels fast. We thought Doctor Magnus had died.”

 

         “Where is she, by the way?”

 

         Aurelian looked confused. “You mean she has not returned yet? I thought she’d be back before us.”

 

         Will sighed heavily, looked at their sodas and went back to the fridge to bring out two beers instead. They ‘cheers’ed, knowing there were many sleepless nights ahead.

 

         Helen was enjoying the first peaceful sleep she had been denied for a week. Unknown to her, it was with her head resting on Nikola’s shoulder as he looked at the window and watched the plane touch down in Old City.

 

***

 

         Nikola paused for a moment before the door of the Sanctuary. He steeled himself inwardly, feeling like a stranger, before stepping inside. Helen’s smile of encouragement did nothing to quell his nerves, though he refused to let them show.

 

         He hadn’t expected to see the Sanctuary with his own eyes again.

 

         Helen whispered something to Druitt that he couldn’t hear, Druitt grasping her arm fondly. She left, presumably to unpack and start working immediately. Druitt and Nikola stood in the foyer, both considering each other tersely.

 

         Nikola finally broke the silence. “How are you feeling, Johnny Boy?”

 

         “Fantastic,” he growled sarcastically.

 

         Nikola smirked, straightening his collar. “I was hoping your mood would have improved somewhat. Try traveling, it does wonders for the soul.”

 

         “And what do you know of my soul?”

 

         Nikola gave him a curious look, bearing an expression he couldn’t fathom and disappeared down the hallway without a parting shot.


	8. Chapter 8

EIGHT

***

 

         “Concern, fear … a small sense of mistrust. He wants to believe you, but isn’t sure if he can.” Ylerin paused the video of Declan’s first message, and then moved to the second one of his conversation he had with Will. Aurelian stood beside her, his fingers skimming over the screen.

 

         “Shock, grief, disbelief … trying to keep a brave face, but shaken. His sadness is not feigned.”

 

         Helen felt herself sigh with relief. She had so hoped to trust Declan, and it was a relief to know he was a loyal friend. Ylerin turned to look at her, shaking her head warningly. “We can never know for certain … not unless we could steal his breath.”

 

         Will tugged on Helen’s arm and pulled her over to the side. She could see the gears turning in his head. “I have an idea … but it might be a little crazy.”

 

         “Well, only if it’s just a little.” Helen smirked.

 

         “Conference call with all the Heads. You show up, we reveal that you’re still alive. Get Aurelian and Ylerin to watch and they might be able to see something incriminating. Someone a little too shocked … someone a little too disappointed…”

 

         Helen saw the earnest look on Will’s face and thought about his proposal. It was a touch dramatic, but it still had some merit. “You know that’s not enough proof, and it blows our trump card with only the possibility of an answer. But it’s crazy enough for me. There might come the right time to be that bold.”

 

         Henry was already pulling up videos they had saved of calls from the other Heads. Aurelian finally sat down in a chair as well and flexed his fingers; they had work to do.

 

         “Have we received any new messages?” Will asked quietly. He knew that no matter how quiet he was, the Sybarites could still hear him, but they ignored the conversation as a courtesy.

 

         “No … not yet at least.” Helen shared a knowing look with Will. He gave her shoulder a squeeze and returned to the computers. Just as she had hoped, the other Sanctuaries had their hands full with harassment from various underground organizations. They were also scrambling to try and fill the void she had left. Will was trusted to head Old City Sanctuary, but was still considered too inexperienced to head the network.

 

         She wasn’t hopeful though that the silence was permanent. Their faceless nemesis had wanted her out of the picture for a reason. There had to be something they wanted now. Something impossible to take while she was in power. Headship of the network? The Old City Sanctuary itself?

 

         But then why throw it into chaos? To weaken it?

 

         Helen’s phone rang with a call from Kate. “Did you find them?”

 

         “Old City Sanctuary … we bag ‘em and deliver.” Came the perky reply.

 

         “Well done, Kate. Is John with you?”

 

         “Yeah, he almost got bitten by one of the ozone beetles. It was pretty funny. There was a broomstick involved.”

 

         Helen smiled and hung up. That was all of her team accounted for except one who had holed himself up in her library and was apparently working on … absolutely nothing.

 

         She worried for the contents of her wine cellar.

 

***

 

         Nikola sat in an armchair, hands steepled under his chin with his eyes closed. He didn’t budge when Helen sat down beside him and loudly cleared her throat. When he didn’t acknowledge her, she kicked his chair.

 

         “I think you’re trying to get my attention,” he drawled, lazily opening his eyes and smirking at her.

 

         “I thought you were here to help and be useful. Have me in your debt, as you put it.”

 

         “I _am_ doing something important,” he said. “I’m _thinking_.”

 

         Helen sighed, resting her head against her hand. She had known him for over a century and she still couldn’t understand him. “What have I done to offend you, you insufferable man?”

 

         Nikola tilted his head to the side. “Shot me, slapped me, round-house kicked me in the head … and you wouldn’t go with me to the prom.”

 

         Helen snorted. “And you sicked you fledgling vampire army on me. Would you actually have let them kill me?”

 

         Nikola took too long to say “no”. Helen’s mouth fell open and she kicked his chair harder. “ _Nikola!_ ”

 

         “What can I say? I’ve always been single-minded about my pursuits. I allow very little to get in the way.” He grew quiet again and murmured over his fingers, “I also never said I was a good man.”

 

         Helen looked at him thoughtfully, but knew that there was no way to pry secrets from him when he didn’t want to be revealed. She felt the words “you hate me” about to fall from her lips, but they stuck in her throat. Instead, she managed to say, “I’m glad you came.”

 

         His eyes flickered up to hers and he nodded once. The tension unwound slightly.

 

         “Do you know where Aurelian and Ylerin are?” she asked, quickly trying to change the subject.

 

         “They’re out. Feeding.” The pointed look he gave her had a sinister undercurrent. Helen was a little stunned.

 

         “You mean … on people?”

 

         Nikola folded his arms across his chest, throwing one of his legs over top the other. “And did you think they actually lived off of broths and juices? Or the rats in your lab? They’re still a type of vampire, Helen. They’re not human.”

 

         She fought down her unease. “Neither are we, technically.”

 

         Nikola chuckled dryly. “Never forget a predator’s true nature.”

 

         “Is that a threat?” Helen asked coyly, “Or an observation?”

 

         He grinned and rose from his chair. “Oh, I think you know the joys of the hunt as well as our Sybarites.” He blew her a kiss goodnight and left.

 

         Once in the hallway, Nikola pulled out a portable tablet he had appropriated from the mutt’s lab. He had downloaded all the files and records of the Sanctuary Heads. With a single command the information had been sent to Ylerin and Aurelian’s mobile devices. Names, addresses, safe codes, floor plans…

 

         What Helen didn’t know was that Lighthouse Industries had its own private jets as well. Aurelian and Ylerin would be back from Moscow in time for breakfast – and they’d be able to strike one suspect off of their list.

 

         In a way, Nikola knew he was trapped in a cage like Druitt. Every intelligence network in the world was looking for him, the source of the total global hack.

 

         He had blown his cover, risked exposure, and the most damning thing was now the world knew _exactly_ what he could do. He couldn’t be over or underestimated with his resume published for all to see, and Nikola knew power came in keeping people guessing. And he had done it all in vain.

 

         Nikola sighed, his teeth grinding together. He had expected to feel joy and elation when he found out she wasn’t actually dead. And of course he had.

 

         It was just strangled by an all-consuming fear that she had seen more of him than he ever wanted to live with.

 

***

 

         “Boss, you can’t run forever. Meet us and we can have the world forget you. Or you could try on your own. There’s a lovely lass hoping that isn’t the case.”

 

         John tossed the scrap of paper onto Helen’s desk, trembling with repulsion. “I found it in one of my old safe houses.”

 

         “But there’s no information on when and where to meet them…” Helen puzzled, lying out the note flat.

 

         “Do you think it’s time to let Declan know what’s going on?” Will asked.

 

         Nikola snorted in derision. “That would be insurmountably foolish. At best it leaves us with more muddled channels. At worst, he’ll become a target as well.”

 

         “Then what do you suggest?” John growled, his fingers flexing. “What genius solution have you come up with since you’ve been here?” He strode up, pushing his face an inch away from Tesla’s.

 

         “Temper, Johnny,” came the silky snarl.

 

         “ _Enough_ , gentlemen.”

 

         Ignoring Helen, John grabbed the front of Tesla’s shirt and whispered dangerously into his ear. “I don’t know what game you’re playing at, old boy. But I don’t trust you.”

 

         Nikola growled lowly back, so only John could hear. “Smartest thing you’ve ever done.”

 

         With an irritated grunt, the Big Guy pushed them forcefully apart with admonishing smacks on their shoulders. Helen felt ready to strangle them both, but managed to keep her temper in check. They would accomplish nothing with all their egos flying about in the air.

 

         “They obviously know where to find you … perhaps we’ll just have to play the waiting game.”

 

         Helen felt uneasy. “What do you mean, Nikola?”

 

         He shrugged, nonchalant. “They know all of John’s safe houses. They’re bound to show up again at some point.”

 

         “Are you suggesting I just sit there and wait for this lunatic to show up and make their demands?” John’s voice trembled, he was ready to boil over again.

 

Unfazed, Nikola leaned closer toward him, almost daring him to strike the first blow. “The blood of a young woman will be on your hands … again, Johnny, if you can’t take the risk. The Sanctuary’s already been compromised and attacked. Helen is being hunted. How much more devastation will we have to be witness to while you waffle and _decide_ when to participate?”

 

Helen grit her teeth. “This _isn’t_ John’s fault.”

 

“No, but the outcome of all this does depend on him.”

 

As much as John wanted to gut him then and there, he had to admit the bastard was right. That was the most annoying thing about him.


	9. Chapter 9

[-](http://www.sanctuaryfiction.net/viewstory.php?sid=1043&chapter=9&textsize=-1) **Text Size** [+](http://www.sanctuaryfiction.net/viewstory.php?sid=1043&chapter=9&textsize=1)

NINE

***

 

         “John, can you read me?”

 

         Nikola snorted. “Of course he can, we’re operating on a channel organically linked to me. There’s no possibility of interference.”

 

         “I’m going to kill you, old boy,” came the static growl over the headset.

 

         “Ever the height of gentlemanly etiquette and courtesy,” Nikola drawled. Helen covered her hand over the mouthpiece of her headset to spare John the sarcasm. Their bickering could take all night.

 

         John sat in a rickety, wooden chair in the middle of the attic of an abandoned tenement. The building was condemned, but had been declared a heritage sight for being over a hundred years old. Unsure of what to do with it the city had left it lying in ruin, and John Druitt had slept here many nights to escape the law.

 

         He felt uneasy, and stiflingly bored. He didn’t know how long he was supposed to be here, but expected to stay for a few nights. Not knowing when their assailant would make their appearance, however, kept him on edge so much that he couldn’t relax even an inch to read a book. The team back at Old City were taking shifts to monitor the microphone that had been surgically implanted just beneath the skin of his clavicle. So far their only tasks had been to keep him company and stop the boredom from driving him insane.

 

         Even listening to Tesla ramble on was better than staring at an empty room.

 

         “You’re worried,” Nikola said, noting how Helen bit and worried at her lower lip. “Stop worrying, he’ll be fine.”

 

         Helen said nothing but stopped biting her lip. She had been living with the tension of this game, this twisted war for too long and had forgotten what peaceful sleep was like. Better that she be awake and able to do something, anything, to bring an end to all of this.

 

         “I hear footsteps,” John suddenly said.

 

         Helen looked wide-eyed at Nikola. They had been hoping for an encounter, but she hadn’t expected one so soon.

 

***

 

         “Hello, boss.”

 

         John looked up to see a man wearing dark glasses and shabby, unassuming clothing. He was nondescript, plain-faced, plain brown hair, and average stature; the perfect candidate for anonymity as it were. John remained seated, merely lifting an eyebrow in acknowledgement.

 

         “A good evening to you.”

 

         The man grinned back, holding his hands open to show that he was unarmed. “I’m just the messenger boy.”

 

         “So you have a message for me? I’ve enjoyed your ‘cute’ little notes.” John’s voice was even and light, but underneath the silky tone was the scent of danger. The man seemed unfazed, but John noted how his feet pointed towards the doorway, the only exit.

 

         “If you come with me, my employer will reward you handsomely.”

 

         John scoffed. “Oh you can do better than that, young man. You don’t expect me to actually go anywhere with you given that paltry offer?”

 

         The man licked his lips nervously. “That’s true, but my employer is offering you something much more valuable than money.”

 

         “Go on,” came the low growl.

 

         “Freedom. From that thing inside you.”

 

***

 

         Nikola’s hackles suddenly rose and he urgently said, “Get him out, get him out now!”

 

         “Why? What’s happening?”

 

         “He has an EM shield on his person somewhere, and he’s been stalling for time so it can build up a charge!”

 

***

 

         John looked back at the messenger, mildly stunned. _In me?_ So they knew of the energy elemental … but they still thought it controlled him.

 

         He heard the flurry of activity from inside his ear and heard the words “EM shield”. Something on his face must have betrayed him for the plain man suddenly reached into his coat pocket and drew out a gun. John disappeared in a flash of orange light a split second after the gun fired and a bullet grazed his arm.

 

         He reappeared in the main laboratory of the Sanctuary, still reeling back from the impact of the shot. He stumbled a few steps and Helen rushed up to grab his arms and steady him. The wound was superficial, but he still felt his heart pounding on how close he had been to being trapped.

 

         “You heard all of that, right?” Helen motioned for him to stop talking, and sat him down in a chair. She examined the wound on his shoulder, and pulled out a bottle of disinfectant.

 

         The gears were already turning in Nikola’s head as he paced the room. “They want the elemental … and they say they have a way to separate it from your person. Who … _who_ has that kind of technology?”

 

         John snorted. “You mean you don’t?”

 

         “No.” Nikola’s frank response cut the mockery short and John grew somber. If even the vampire wasn’t boasting or showing off, then they were in trouble.

 

         “It’s imperative that we continue to let them believe the elemental is still present. That is our _only_ bargaining chip. If we lose that, then John becomes expendable.”

 

         Helen cleaned the bloody scrape on John’s shoulder, her lips pursed tightly as she thought in silence. “But what are we bargaining for?”

 

         “Time. We need time to find out who they are, where they are and stop them. And they’ve just revealed a bit of their identity by letting us know the kind of toys they have to play with.”

 

         Helen looked through her desk for some bandage wrappings, and quirked an eyebrow at Nikola. “The only person I know who has that kind of ability is you, frankly.” She didn’t understand the dark look that passed over his face and pressed on. “Maybe you should look through your records of who’s bought some of your licenses.”

 

         “Of course…” he whispered, and turned smartly on his heel and left the room.

 

         John was staring at the floor, lost in his own thoughts as she saw to his wound. “That was close, John.”

 

         “Indeed.”

 

         “Don’t try to do anything noble.”

 

         He looked up at her puzzled. “What do you mean by that?”

 

         “Noble men die far too early in wars.”

 

***

 

         Nikola handed the Sybarites a fresh set of fake passports and then busily programmed new codes into their tablets. “The plane will send you to New York first. If that comes out clean, then you’ll take a flight to Berlin.”

 

         “Will the Doctor notice our absence for so long?” Aurelian asked, discreetly pocketing the documents into his coat.

 

         “I’ll make up some excuse for you. But it is paramount that we work quickly now.”

 

         Ylerin took her tablet back after he was done loading the new Sanctuary floor plans and security protocols and gave him a pointed look. “If we do encounter the one you’re looking for at either of these Sanctuaries … what do you want us to do?”

 

         “Kill them. Kill them quietly.” Nikola’s expression didn’t change a hair. He could have been talking about what to order for breakfast. They nodded in understanding, and left.

 

         He turned the lights off in the room and made his way down to the wine cellar. It was better they all thought he wasted his time and theirs down amongst the vintages.

 

         He drank a few bottles every night to keep up appearances. It didn’t matter to him, of course, seeing as the wine had no effect on his mental capacities. He sat down and thought, pulling out a bottle of red at random.

 

         Damned as he was to admit it, even he didn’t have the ability to remove the elemental on his own. So what on earth did their faceless adversary know or have access to that they could make such an offer? In the time he had disappeared in South America he hadn’t thought once of what happened to the cursed thing once it fled John’s body. Now, it sent a chill down his spine.

 

         It was still alive somewhere … he had no doubt of that. Had it entered a new host? Was it roaming somewhere in the ether of electrical currents … hiding in a nuclear reactor where it could feed off such vast amounts of fuel? Had he damned someone to John’s former fate?

 

         And now, how were they going to find the damned thing? And what would they do if they could? He would have to find a way to contain it, seeing as they could not destroy it. Or perhaps they could divert it somehow, or maybe diffuse its effects. It was energy after all – this was something he _should_ be able to figure out.

 

         Above all, he had to come up with the solution, he was the only one who could, without revealing what he knew of its escape to Helen. That would be a victory at too high a cost to him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trouble for our resident vampire. John and Aurelian go hunting.

TEN

***

 

         “What’s happening to my business?” Nikola’s tone was seemingly light, but carried an undercurrent of irritation. His head of security merely babbled, afraid of incurring his wrath, and Nikola hung up with a curse. He put a call through to Ylena instead. Pale freaks … at least they were capable.

 

         “The main Lighthouse facility has just undergone a security breach. _My_ countermeasures have been tampered with. I don’t know what’s going on, it seems all the personnel are fine, but I don’t like what’s just happened.”

 

         “We’ll make a stop there before returning. New York and Berlin have checked out clean.”

 

         Nikola pinched the bridge of his nose. “And bring some wine.” He cut the feed on the portable tablet (he hated using phones) and stowed it away in his desk. The wolf mutt had grudgingly given up half of his lab for Nikola to use and it was already a mess.

 

         Well … that just made it harder for Henry or the hairy butler to snoop and inadvertently break one of his machines.

 

         So, London, New York, Berlin and Moscow had all been discounted. While there were still over a dozen sanctuaries in the network, Nikola decided to narrow his search down to facilities that would have the technology to take the elemental. That meant Tokyo, which he was half sure would be clean, Mumbai, Cairo and Beijing. He wondered if he was being too hasty to jump to those four, but they were the primary suspects. If they all ruled out, then he would have to be more methodical.

 

         He growled, working out a phantom itch in his shoulders. They just didn’t have the _time_.

 

         Helen, of course, would have a fit if she knew what he was doing. Espionage, and breaking and entering she might not have a problem with, but possible assassination… she would shoot him. Again. That was Helen, too honourable by half. This was something that needed to be done, and this way he could give her deniability.

 

         He was planning and preparing his next lines of attack when an alarm went out in the Sanctuary. He looked up at the clock and realized he had been lost in thought for a couple hours.

 

         By the time he arrived in the foyer, the entire team was there and Aurelian was carrying Ylerin in his arms. She was bleeding profusely, he couldn’t tell from where, and she looked unconscious.

 

         “Prepare the operating table!” The Big Guy ran off to get ready, and John gently took Ylerin into his own arms before teleporting to the infirmary. Aurelian’s breathing was ragged, and he sank to his knees, distraught.

 

         “What the hell happened?” Will asked, adamantly.

 

         Nikola went down on one knee and looked sternly at Aurelian. The Sybarite seemed to understand, and discreetly a silver wisp left his mouth. Nikola inhaled sharply, rising to his feet, before Will hauled his friend up and tried to make sense of the sudden scene on their doorstep.

 

         Nikola paced the foyer, Aurelian’s most recent recollections flowing through his mind.

 

         They had arrived at Lighthouse to find it sacked. The personnel had all been evacuated without harm. Lights flickering in the hallway. They entered his office … found his files stolen … his hard drives gone as well.

 

         A presence. Aurelian turned, too late, and Ylerin was already on the floor. Men in black uniforms, all non-descript. A blow to the head. “Where is Doctor Tesla?” they demanded.

 

         Aurelian managed to escape, but not steal any of their breath.

 

         _They are hunting you too now, blood demon._

Nikola felt his insides grow cold as ice. He paced aimlessly in the foyer until he realized he was entirely alone. Regaining his composure, he made his way down to the infirmary.

 

***

 

         Ylerin looked small and frail in the sickbed, bandages wrapped around her head. She had needed over a dozen stitches, and was on a drip of broad-spectrum antibiotics to prevent any infection. Aurelian sat sadly by her bedside, feeding her small wisps of silvery mist every so often.

 

         Kate chewed on her nail as she looked in on them. “Don’t they have the same crazy healing voodoo you have?”

 

         Nikola couldn’t help a small smile at her colourful choice of words. “We’re biological cousins, but they’re still a different species. They’re not as strong, and they are much more fragile.”

 

         “Look, I know you’ve been sending them out on missions. I can tell they’ve been working as your agents for a long time. I’m not here to tattle on you … I just hope it was worth it.”

 

         Nikola only graced her with an inquisitive eyebrow as if to ask “oh, really?” but spared her his usual vitriolic bite. She said nothing more as Helen entered the room, and quietly excused herself.

 

         “What’s going on, Nikola?”

 

         Ah yes. No one could really get much by the esteemed Helen Magnus. “It seems I’m similarly being hunted as dear old Johnny.”

 

         Helen looked to Aurelian, he seemed far too preoccupied with feeding and attempting to speed up her recovery to pay much attention to them, but she couldn’t underestimate his keen sense of hearing. She gestured for them to retire behind the glass barricade to the small medical lab.

 

         Her mind was working overtime. “They want the energy elemental, and they also want you.”

 

         “It seems I’m popular again. You know, I’m rather insulted they haven’t tried to abduct me first.”

 

         Helen tapped a finger to her lips, ignoring his less than helpful remark. “Do you think they need you to extract the elemental?”

 

         Nikola shook his head, crossing his arms against his chest. “They’ve been hunting John since before they discovered I was alive. They must have already been confident they could extract it beforehand.”

 

         “Then why do you factor into their plans now? What do they want you to do with the elemental? What do they need you for?”

 

         He could see the look on her face as she reached her conclusion, and his muscles tensed. He already knew what she was thinking and the look on his face dared her to speak of it. She looked mildly affronted at the death glare he was giving her, and pressed anyway. “Total, global hijack. They know you can do it. They want to use it somehow.”

 

         “A good magician never reveals his secrets, Helen.”

 

         She could only guess at the dark look in his eyes. “What was it about that day…”

 

         “I don’t want to speak of it,” He snapped. “Helen, your patients need you.” With that he turned smartly on his heel and left.

 

         Within the hour he had found a hidden missive in the Sanctuary database addressed to him. Cute, once decrypted it was entirely in Serbian. And the message was short.

 

         _We will find you either way._

He merely laughed at it and erased it completely. They had nothing to bargain or threaten him with. Not as long as they still believed Helen was dead.

 

***

 

         “Hmm … a total global hijack, and a bloodthirsty elemental.”

 

         Henry shrugged his shoulders, looking from Will to Helen. “I’m not an evil genius or anything, but if I had those two things I’d put them together. If you can access every communications channel, every airwave, every commercial and private database … you have access to an entire network of energy. Sounds like the perfect playground for an energy monster.”

 

         Will’s mind was already racing down that line of thought. “So the total global hijack could be used as a carrier system for the elemental. It … it would put countries in a stranglehold.”

 

         Helen felt her pulse race, and grit her teeth. “It would bring countries to their knees. And the UN. No intelligence or home security force would be able to combat something that wreaks havoc on every device we use to keep people safe, let alone speak to one another. They want to use the elemental to blackmail the entire world.”

 

         Henry looked stunned, finding it hard to conceive of that amount of power. “But … what do they want?”

 

         “And somehow they needed _you_ out of it.” Will pointed to Helen.

 

         Helen shook her head, unable to find the answer. “I don’t know … I’m afraid I can’t find an insight to a mind so twisted.”

 

***

 

         Druitt sat on the rooftop. He spent most of his time up there these days. Usually Kate joined him (with a can of beer or two), but tonight he wanted to be alone.

 

         He heard a _clink_ behind him and cursed inwardly. He wasn’t fit for any kind of company right now. He turned to look behind him and saw it was one of the Sybarites, the male. He hadn’t really bothered to learn their names or get acquainted with them. The male eyed him and then sat down beside him.

 

         “It is a beautiful moon tonight.”

 

         “Indeed,” John grunted.

 

         Aurelian looked at him, his black eyes piercing. “You know what it’s like to do something unsavory because no one else can or has the stomach to.”

 

         John laughed mirthlessly. “Has Helen told you to lecture me about nobility?”

 

         Aurelian looked confused and mildly affronted. “I don’t take to being told to do something not within my interests. And I’m old enough to know nobility is a rare and often foolish thing.”

 

         “Then why are you here?” John’s voice was menacing, his patience was wearing thin.

 

         Aurelian passed him his mobile device. John skimmed the contents and saw blueprints and security layouts. “How did you get your hands on these?”

 

         “Mumbai, Beijing, Tokyo and Cairo. I need to be at all of them tonight. I’m doing this with the blood demon, but I’m running out of time. You’re the only one who can make this happen.”

 

         “This is all of Nikola’s design?” John didn’t bother hiding the distaste in his voice.

 

         “Do you think asking for your help would be part of his design?”

 

         John smirked at that. Nikola could be dangling from a cliff with no one else around for miles, and he still wouldn’t ask for John’s help out of sheer spite. He just wished Helen hadn’t picked up the habit as well. “And your plans for the other sanctuaries are?”

 

         “Do you know what I am?”

 

         “A species of vampire.”

 

         Aurelian ‘tsked’, shaking his head as if to a child. The abnormal looked so much younger than him, but John was struck with the feeling of age and remembered that Helen had told him they were millennia old. “The doctor calls it _halispirus vampirus_.” His eyes flashed. “Soul-stealer.”

 

         John understood. He rose and quietly said, “I’ll go fetch my knives.”

 

***

 

         They slipped into Mumbai, silent as the night. A watchmen on duty rushed towards them and Aurelian seemed to slide through the shadows, unseen.

 

         “You! What are you doing he-“ He fell to the ground, silver mist bleeding from his nose and mouth. Aurelian’s eyes flickered for a moment before he whispered, “The EM shield’s power source is in the main circuitry.”

 

         Disabling the shield and security feeds was child’s play, and soon they appeared in the Head of House’s bedroom with a flash of orange light. Druitt stood nervously by the door as Aurelian coaxed silvery mist from the sleeping woman.

 

         “Are you sure she won’t feel anything?”

 

         Silver mist disappeared into Aurelian’s mouth. “Just a mild headache upon awakening. Or … she will not wake at all.”

 

         Every muscle in John’s body was tense as a coiled spring. He felt like there were eyes watching him from every direction. Aurelian stood silently, eyelids flickering, until he finally whispered, “It is not her. We can leave.”

 

         Tokyo passed by without incident. They slipped in and out under half an hour like thieves in the darkness.

 

         In Beijing they tripped a motion sensor and had to steal away to another part of the city. Aurelian spat out a curse in a language John didn’t understand.

 

         “That was _not_ supposed to be there!”

 

         “So, they’ve reinforced their security secretly without any records of updating their protocols. Perhaps they’re afraid of something…”

 

         Aurelian nodded slowly. “Or hiding something.”

 

         “The EM shields will be at full strength.”

 

         “Then we find another way.”

 

         John knocked out two of the guards on watch and they changed quickly into the uniforms, hiding the bodies in an alleyway. Slipping inside, Aurelian found the security mainframe and with some gentle “persuasion” managed to uncover the override code. The technician lay unconscious by his desk and they arranged it so he looked like he would be sleeping.

 

         It would have taken too long to disable the EM shields at full strength, so they crept to the office of the Head of House instead. He lay sleeping, slumped over his desk. John held a finger to his lips as Aurelian knelt beside the man, coaxing out his breath with a curled finger.

 

         His eyelids flickered as he processed the memories. The man suddenly stirred awake.

 

         John immediately grabbed Aurelian and ran for the window. They crashed through it, hearing startled yells and gunfire behind them. Falling, Aurelian was too shocked to scream and clutched onto John’s coat tightly. Before they hit the ground they vanished in a swirl of orange light.

 

         “ _Damnit_ ,” John yelled once they had safely reappeared in Old City. He was tempted to kick over the garbage can beside him when he saw Aurelian was on his knees.

 

         “Is everything all right?”

 

         Aurelian gasped, his eyelids fluttering. “Fear. A secret meeting. Darkness, shadows. A threat. Must cooperate or else Beijing will fall. A vote … of non-confidence in the doctor. All stop once news arrives of her death. Information … forced from them – designs, patents…”

 

         John helped Aurelian to his feet and he suddenly grabbed John’s shoulders. “I have seen your prison.”

 

         John fought to keep the fear from showing on his face. “They’ve built me a _cage_?”

 

         “The corruption runs deeply. Beijing is innocent, but their technology was used to further this plan. They are afraid. There is something large … something very large happening here.” Aurelian sighed, suddenly staggering back from the effort.

 

         “But I am not sure what it is. I saw a face, not a memory but a thought. Fear for someone else is being roped into this web.”

 

         Aurelian beckoned John closer and a silver wisp left his parted lips. He gestured for John to inhale, and hesitantly John drew in a deep lungful of breath. An image swam into his mind as Aurelian looked at him expectantly. “Who is this woman?”

 

         John felt his insides go cold. “The Chief Secretary of Defense with the UN.”

 

***

 

         “How do you feel?”

 

         Ylerin’s voice was raspy and thin, barely audible despite the blanket of stillness that covered the night. “Weak … slow…”

 

         Nikola checked the medication drip she was hooked up to. He knew this was his fault, but he didn’t know how to tell her he was sorry. She seemed too drugged to register much anyway.

 

         “Is the moon out tonight?” She asked quietly.

 

         Nikola rose and went over to the window. He drew back the curtains so she could see the fat, full moon hanging in the sky. Silver light washed the room and Ylerin smiled faintly.

 

         “She is laughing at you, Nikola.”

 

         “You mean the Silver Lady?”

 

         “Yes.” Ylerin’s voice was barely a whisper as she slipped back into sleep. “You and the doctor … it is a sad thing … she laughs at sad things…”

 

         Still looking out the window at the brilliant night sky, Nikola didn’t notice Helen quietly step away from the open door and disappear down the corridor.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small appearance from Declan. John Druitt thinks of the century that has passed and where his place in the world is now.l Helen steals a memory. Nikola goes to London.

ELEVEN

***

 

         “Have you managed to recover all of your residents?”

 

         Will rubbed his face tiredly, feeling the neglected scruff that had grown there over the past week. “All the ones that managed to escape, yes. We … we lost a lot of our residents in the explosion.”

 

         Declan’s face darkened. “I am truly sorry to hear that. You know that if you need any more assistance, you just have to ask.”

 

         “Thank you, Declan. I really do appreciate that. We’re just trying to get back on our feet again for the moment. Finding temporary housing for the Kryton was our main concern. The rest we have under control.”

 

         “How is the construction and repairs going?”

 

         “Slow,” Will admitted with a tired laugh. “We hope to have the main lab fully restored by the end of the month.”

 

         Decaln grew silent for a moment, and even though it was just his image on a computer screen, Will could feel the regret and pain in his voice. “You’re holding up very well. Doctor Magnus chose rightly when she placed her faith in you.”

 

         “They are pretty big shoes to fill.” Declan laughed at that.

 

         “Indeed. It was no less daunting for me, I assure you. I still haven’t the heart to move into Doctor Watson’s old office. I doubt I ever will.”

 

         Will felt a pang of guilt then. While he would eventually have to take the full position of Head of House in the future, his mentor was still alive, still there for him when he needed a guiding hand, advice or as a friend. Declan had lost his friend and support system in the blink of an eye, and had made a superhuman effort to fill that responsibility.

 

         Will could only hope he’d be as capable when it was truly time for him.

 

***

 

         _One way or another, we’ll have your name in lights_.

 

         Nikola sneered at the missive and summarily deleted it from the database.

 

         They were good, he had to give them that. He found confidential reports that the FBI archives had been broken into and the patents they had seized upon his “death” were stolen. So they were looking for his designs to try and recreate the global hack on their own. Or at least trying to figure out how he’d done it.

 

         He snorted derisively. They’d only be able to generate the amount of electro-magnetic power required if they had ten Large Hadron Colliders. And he doubted even that they could steal the one in existence.

 

         Still, more the fool he if he allowed too many of his notes to fall into their hands. And it wouldn’t be long before they started threatening young William to hand him over, like they’d done with Helen and John.

 

         He’d have to make arrangements to leave before that happened.

 

***

 

         “We have to warn the doctor right away then, if this woman you speak of is so important.”

 

         “Yes … we do.” John’s tone brooked no refusal, and the implication of the look he gave Aurelian made the Sybarite’s eyebrows shoot up.

 

         “No … no, don’t you dare—“

 

         John grabbed Aurelian’s arm and they vanished into the air. Before Aurelian could fully orient himself to his surroundings, John had vanished in a flash of orange light again.

 

         John reappeared in Beijing, scrawled a message on the Sanctuary’s gate, and left just as suddenly.

 

         _Catch me if you can._

Trite, but it seemed to be the going joke of the day. He knew his would be captors would find it as he fully intended them to.

 

         He reappeared in one of his safe houses, one in London in fact. It didn’t matter which he chose, sooner or later he would be caught, but he hadn’t visited this particular one in many years. The room was dusty and his presence disturbed a swirl of motes that circled in the air. It smelled old, of passing time, and was mostly bare save for a small table, chair and a single shelf.

 

         He found the copy of _Twelfth Night_ hidden in the desk drawer just as it was when he had hidden it over a century hence. Most collectors would have killed to have their hands on such an old printing. He flipped to the title page.

 

         “For Helen, in felicitations for her most esteemed birthday. M.J. Druitt.”

 

         He had gone mad before he could gift it to her, and mostly forgotten about it over the years; locked away in a dusty corner of his memory. He knew she treasured above all else the copy her father had given her, but he had somehow hoped these two editions might some day be kept side by side. For the two men she loved the most, her father and her husband.

 

         The noise of cars and traffic outside only served to underline how much time can pass and never in the ways one would hope or expect.

 

         He remembered the look on her face when she had determined Tesla was still alive. Anger, betrayal. It was a look he was so used to being on the receiving end of that he had begun to think such acute anger became part and parcel of passion and deep love. For surely one could only feel that degree of hurt and rage for someone they equally held as much affection for.

 

         But when was the last time they had laughed freely together? Would there ever be a touch he could initiate without the shadow of fear or mistrust in her eyes?

 

         Don’t try to do anything noble. Oh, Helen! Surely by now of all people she should be the one to know this wasn’t a noble thing at all. Yet again this is merely the broken puppet John Druitt enslaved to something else. Only this time it is for an idea, one he cannot look at himself in the mirror without.

 

         Absolution.

 

         The Age of Romance was over. It seemed with that, perhaps the time of their romance had ended as well. He was close to accepting that he would be content, very happy, to once again be thought of as a treasured member of the Five. That surely is a type of love that endures beyond the sufferings of the young Romantic. And the Victorians never sneered at Platonic love.

 

         What was the Age of the day now then? Reason? Innovation? Technology? Information?

 

         John Druitt read through the play fondly, feeling lighthearted despite always having one ear craned for any footsteps outside his door, and felt himself a man somehow out of step with time.

 

***

 

         Helen slipped quietly into the infirmary and locked the door behind her. Ylerin was sleeping in the sick bed. Her physiology was still prone to being overwhelmed by even the lowest doses of medication.

 

         Helen knew what she was doing was in a firm moral shade of gray, but the imperative to know was beginning to cloud everything else. She knew Nikola had been keeping something from her deliberately, and it concerned the night he had died.

 

         It also held the key to everything. To what had happened to John, to what was happening to all of them right now … to why he wouldn’t speak to her of her funeral…

 

         Helen knelt by Ylerin’s bedside and whispered softly in her ear. “The silver lady … the chamber of Silver … Nikola…”

 

         Helen whispered these words softly over and over again, and Ylerin’s lips slowly parted. Her breath hitching in her throat, a small wisp of silvery mist curled into the air. Delicately, Helen leant in closer and inhaled.

 

         The memory was slow to unfurl in her mind, broken and fragmented.

 

         She felt awe and fear. She saw a circular pool of water. She felt safe. She felt so very old. She saw Nikola, speaking to something … but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. It was as if she we hearing everything underwater. She saw electrical sparks shoot across the chamber. She heard a faint voice in her mind laughing.

 

         _:You would rather die than tell her your true feelings?:_

She felt the chamber shaking, fissures forming in the rock and then chunks of stone falling to the ground. Running, they were running away from the chamber, and Nikola for some reason knelt there, refusing to move. His eyes were black as midnight.

 

         “ _Remember what you promised_.”

 

         Helen staggered back, her mind overwhelmed. She couldn’t piece together anymore.

 

***

 

         “Madman! _You madman!_ ”

 

         Henry and the Big Guy raced out to the courtyard of the Sanctuary. They found Aurelian lying on the grass screaming those words, his nose broken and blood streaming down his face. The Big Guy helped him to his feet.

 

         “What happened?” He growled.

 

         Aurelian staggered, feeling woozy and grabbed the front of Henry’s shirt. “The UN. They are going to do something to the UN. John, he…” His eyes rolled back and he fainted dead away.

 

         Henry looked nervously from Aurelian to the Big Guy. “Does this place ever have a day where we’re not hit with a truckload of crazy?”

 

         The Big Guy hefted Aurelian’s slight frame in his arms and then shrugged. “No.”

 

         They brought Aurelian inside, firmly closing the doors behind them. Henry put in an urgent call to Magnus, and the game kick-started into high gear again.

 

***

 

         “Doctor Tesla … I must confess, I was more than a little surprised to receive your call.”

 

         “Well, I don’t need much in the way of fanfare. I can just assume you’re all honoured to receive me.” Nikola stepped through the doorway of the London Sanctuary with the attitude as if he ran it himself. Declan frowned momentarily, but closed the doors behind him.

 

         “I’ve followed your instructions and have kept your reception discreet. So forgive me if there isn’t any _fanfare_.”

 

         “Wine perhaps?”

 

         Declan fought the urge to roll his eyes. “I do wonder as to why you’ve shown up here instead of Old City.”

 

         “Old City’s in ruins, you know that. Any port in a storm as they say…” Nikola clasped his hands together, ignoring Declan’s unease. “Watson’s office. I need to get inside.”

 

         Declan’s hackles raised and his mouth set in a firm line. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that without good reason.”

 

         Nikola finally seemed to take notice of his icy welcome and spread his arms wide, his supplications carrying a hint of mockery. “Come on, my man, we both know how this game works. Now, you get me into Watson’s office because James and I were dear old school friends and because it’s _my_ business.”

 

         Declan laughed without mirth, shaking his head. “I don’t know why Doctor Magnus tolerated you, but you won’t find London your playground.”

 

         Nikola grimaced. “You’re right, that was always New York. Now look, I’m being hunted by whatever shadowy organization it was that blew up Old City and I need something from James’ office that he kept for me.”

 

         Declan eyed him suspiciously. “Does Will know you’re here?”

 

         “I don’t answer to school boys.”

 

         Declan glared at him and Nikola reciprocated with an indifferent stare. “I’m also going to stand here and annoy you until the door to James’ office is unlocked.”

 

         Declan rolled his eyes, but relented. He had better things to do with his time than argue with a surly vampire. He had an entire Sanctuary network in chaos to try and bring order to, for godssake. And if it was true that James Watson had kept something for him then it wasn’t Declan’s right to refuse him.

 

         “If you bring any wine into Doctor Watson’s office I will throw you into the giant squid’s tank.”

 

         When Declan finally stopped hovering over his shoulder, Nikola closed the door to James’s office and looked about the room. It was untouched, his journals and papers were still left scattered about his desk. There was even a thin layer of ash left in the small bowl James used the few times he smoked his pipe. Nikola fought down a wave of depression, and gamely walked over to Watson’s bookcase.

 

         He skimmed over the leather-bound spines until his eyes lit upon one slim volume. A collection of poetry concerning the region of Smijian. How quaint, he had never been sure James had kept it.

 

         Opening the book Nikola found a small bundle of papers inside. His patent and designs for the Wardenclyffe tower, a few letters, and his will. His fingers trembled with the urge to open and read the last document, but he smoothly tucked all the papers away into his coat pocket instead. To relive the past in a museum for a dead friend … it was too much all at once.

 

         Slipping out of the office he heard Declan call after him, “Leaving us so soon?” and stepped out of the London Sanctuary. The night air was chilled and smelt of rain. He looked around and with a sour taste in his mouth remembered why he never came back to visit London that often. The weather. All the drizzle you could want, but rarely ever a proper lightning storm. Teasing harlot.

 

         He disappeared into the night, just another figure disappearing down London’s winding streets.

 

***

 

         Aurelian’s eyes fluttered open and he let out a surprised, “ _ow_ ” when he tried to breathe. His nose felt tender and sore.

 

         “How are you feeling?”

 

         Aurelian almost went cross-eyed trying to frown at his nose with dislike, and gave up and just shook his head. Helen wanted to throw her hands up in the air and give into manic laughter. Twenty-four hours and both the Sybarites somehow managed to end up in the sick bay.

 

         “Will’s made initial calls to the United Nations to try and ascertain if they’ve been under threat already. Everything seems to be normal at the moment. What was it you were trying to tell us?”

 

         Aurelian rubbed the back of his head, trying to collect his thoughts together. “He recognized her as the Chief of Defense? I believe that is the term. She is going to be pulled into this game somehow, or at least that’s what Beijing suspects … _John_.” Aurelian’s eyes suddenly grew wide as saucers.

 

         “Yes, where is he? I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him all day.”

 

         A flash of guilt crossed Aurelian’s face before he whispered, “He has given himself to them … to buy you time.”

 

         Helen felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head. Just as she was about to war with feeling angry or feeling heartbroken, Henry ran into the room. “Have any of you seen Genius?”

 

         “Oh don’t tell me he’s missing too.” Helen slumped against the bed and let her head fall against the wall with a loud _thump!_


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Historical notes at end.

TWELVE

***

 

 _Shoreham, Long Island. 1903._

“Don’t let me fall.”

 

         “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Nikola grasped her waist lightly, but firmly, her back pressed into his chest as she stared at the horizon and the faint hint of shore. She was giddy, as excited as a child, and it was her shared enthusiasm for discovery that had so endeared her to him.

 

         “This makes up for your rather stony mood of late. I think I just might forgive you for never answering any of my letters.” She giggled at him, saying all of it in jest, but he could see lurking in the corner of her eye that she had wept over the packages she sent him, never knowing if he even opened them. Three a week, like clockwork. It was too many times to shed tears over him.

 

         They stood halfway up the tower, arms linked around the metal frame so the wind couldn’t knock them over. The lonely, wind-swept landscape took her breath away, and she pressed closer against him, a sigh escaping her throat.

 

         “Watch this,” he murmured into her hair, and then grasped one of the cables wrapped around the tower. It hummed in his hand, and after a few moments, the top of Wardenclyffe tower lit up and bolts of lightning tore across the sandy beach. She gasped in astonishment, hand clutching his more tightly.

 

         “That’s amazing! How ever are you doing that?”

 

         “This tower, which I hope to have more than one use for, is still best at one thing: amplification. Alone, I am a humble man with an uncommon talent. With _this_ ,” He let off another dozen sparks which roared into life as massive surges of electrical current, bursting in the air as impressive as the thunderbolts of Zeus, “…I have the power to change the world.”

 

         She held onto him, he could smell the faint hint of perfume on her neck, and let out another gasp of awe. She then laughed. “Soon you will be too important to remember me.”

 

         His eyes saddened and he held onto her more tightly. “I could never forget you, Katherine.”

 

***

 

         _Please pass our thoughts onto the good Doctor. We are ever so fans of his work._

Will and Magnus looked grimly at the screen. The message had been left for him, and it might help explain Tesla’s sudden disappearance. “You don’t actually think this spooked him, do you?”

 

         Helen frowned. “Knowing Nikola, not likely. But perhaps his sense of self-preservation has outstripped his desire to help us. Selfish prat.”

 

         Will tried to be reassuring. “Well if that’s the case, we don’t need him. We have an idea of the facilities they have and the … _containment_ cell they want to keep Druitt in. Henry’s already looking at power surges that fit the requirements of that much energy, and I’m looking into any traces we have of where Beijing’s equipment and resources could have gone.”

 

         “I know. You’re doing a fantastic job, Will…” Helen bit the top of her thumbnail and Will gave her a wry smile.

 

         “But…?”

 

         She flushed slightly – he could always read her too well. Especially when she was stressed. “But if Nikola’s gone into hiding again, I wonder what he knows that we don’t. It’s like rats leaving a sinking ship before the captain is aware of any trouble.”

 

         “Well, where could he have gone?”

 

         Helen shrugged, trying to ignore her feelings of unease. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”

 

***

 

         Nikola sat alone in a small café, sipping at a cup of coffee more to keep appearances than for sustenance. His accent or lack thereof would give him away as a foreigner anyway, so he didn’t feel the need to keep up the pretense of being English by drinking tea as well. Horrid stuff.

 

         He had already put in the call to have the Lighthouse tower be dismantled and shipped to different parts of the world. It seemed to have been untouched, more the fools they, and the only blueprint of its design were tucked away in his breast pocket.

 

         He thought about the scrap of paper in his hand instead.

 

         _The last will of Nikola Tesla. All to Katherine Johnson. 1922._

The world was cruel to have her pass away three years later. Always with the number three, that one. Three letters a week. Three times she had joined him in feeding the pigeons at Central Park. Three times he had told her that he loved her. Three times she had broken her vows to Robert and made love to him in secret. That was what had made her so perfect, so unequivocally his…

 

         He wondered where to set his next base of operations. He certainly couldn’t go back to Argentina. But he would need a workhouse where he could reassemble the tower and knock out whoever it was that was hunting Helen.

 

         Helen, now there was one who broke the pattern entirely. Five times she had shot him in the head. Seven times she had tended to him as her patient. Twice had she relented to kiss him of her own accord. Once, she had given in to his embrace and they waited out a thunderstorm tangled up in each other and the perverse imp of lust’s mischief. Never had she confessed any love for him. Twenty-three times had he said the words to her. Only once of those twenty-three times had he said it with genuine feeling. Twice he had bit her in the name of scientific experimentation. Four times had she danced with him, and all four had been to Glen Miller.

 

         It was a dreary list that had no rhyme or reason to it, no mathematical pattern, or even any kind of logic their century-plus friendship should entail. And he had waited a century to see if the pattern could ever re-adjust and correct itself, but she was a variable he could never predict.

 

         Three times he had visited Katherine Johnson’s grave … and then he couldn’t bear to see her again. Couldn’t bear to break the one thing that could remain constant between them and put a fitting seal to their end. In a twisted way, he had been planning on giving Helen her funereal tribute twice more so that in some way she could fit into his life with that unmistakable stamp that made her his. Even if no one else knew.

 

         Having worked himself into a foul, depressed mood, he looked out the window of the café to see rain pouring down the glass in sheets. The coffee had gone cold in his hands, but he didn’t care.

 

         Helen stood outside, an arm thrown over her head to shield her eyes from the rain. She stood at the intersection, looking around for someone.

 

         Nikola sighed inwardly. He was going to kill Declan. Little snitch. This now made it five times he had run away and she came after him.

 

         She held something in the palm of her hand, consulting it. His eyebrows rose curiously … she was using a compass to try and find him because his presence always disturbed the magnetic field. Twice she had used that trick now.

 

         Nineteen photographs they had taken together. Eleven from their days at Oxford. None of them taken after the Second World War.

 

         One thousand, seven hundred and sixty-eight times he had heard her laugh.

 

         She walked a few steps towards the café, stopped, looked to her right and consulted her compass again. She walked a bit more down the street, before doubling back to the small pathway the café was on.

 

         Ten times he had seen her cry. Seven of those over John Druitt.

 

         She looked through the window of the café, and she recognized him. He could see the colour rise in her cheeks, the angry line of her jaw and knew he was in for a tongue-lashing.

 

         He heard the chime of the bell that sounded whenever someone opened the door to the café. Thirty-seven projects they had worked on together as a team instead of the full company of the Five.

 

         He saw the water dripping from her hair, a few delicate drops clinging to her eyelashes. Fourteen times she had fallen asleep in his room after nights of work that stretched into the morning.

 

         She walked over to him, stowing the compass away in her pocket. He could hear her heart beating. Once, John Druitt had beaten him bloody over her.

 

         She sat down, anger emanating from her, but always civil and polite to the last. He could see concern behind the irritation and betrayal. Eight times they had ever held hands.

 

         One beat his heart skipped every time he saw her after an absence.

 

         “Nikola, what on earth are you doing in London?”

 

         “Counting.”

 

***

 

         “Helen, we need to get you out of those wet clothes.”

 

         Helen thanked the waitress when she brought over a cup of tea and kicked his foot under the table. She had tied her wet hair back, a towel around her neck to stop from dripping onto the floor. She sipped the tea, glad for some warmth, and ignored the lascivious grin on his face. “Suddenly decided to reacquaint yourself with England? I thought you hated the country.”

 

         “Hate’s a strong word. I’m just flummoxed by the obsession with tea, curry and chips. Especially when you mix them all together.”

 

         Helen rested her head in her hand. “Care to explain to me why I’m chasing you around again?”

 

         “I like having you chase me.” He saw the look on Helen’s face and he knew he was in for another kick, so quickly added, “Does Watson’s boy know you’re alive?”

 

         “No, I had Will make some calls. It seems you’ve been behaving as incorrigibly as ever.”

 

         Nikola pretended to be offended. “I’m always the perfect image of the gentleman.”

 

         “Except for all the times you aren’t.”

 

         Nikola sighed, passing her a napkin and gesturing to the drops of water running into her eyes. “I had some loose ends to take care of here now that there’s a bounty on my head as well. There are some of my inventions you really don’t want falling into the wrong hands.”

 

         “And you couldn’t just _tell_ me?”

 

         “If I had no secrets I’d lose my charming allure—“

 

         “—and I’d have so many less gray hairs because of you,” she scowled, tossing her damp napkin at him, which he dodged with a yelp. He flicked it off their tabletop with a look of disgust.

 

         “Don’t worry, Helen, you still look fantastic.”

 

         “Nikola.” She reached over the table and clasped his hand, her eyes pleading. “They have John.”

 

         He grew silent, his usual boorish humour quelled. She saw him fiddle nervously with his suit jacket, but he squeezed her hand lightly back soothingly. “You seem to attract hopelessly devoted men.”

 

         “I don’t know what’s going to happen to him – how long before they find out it isn’t inside him anymore…” She looked down at the table miserably, before looking up at him again, her eyes brilliant and piercing. “We have to find the elemental before they find out what’s going on.”

 

         Nikola’s jaw almost dropped to the floor and his voice was strangled with incredulity. “You want to go _chasing after_ that thing? You’re insane!”

 

         Helen’s eyes similarly widened and she slapped his shoulder. “And you want to just leave him there to rot?”

 

         He flicked her back, fussing over the crease in his suit. “John’s a big boy, he made up his own mind to do this, and he can take care of himself.”

 

         “You don’t mean that. Nikola, you’re the only one with the ability to track down and contain this creature. We need you.”

 

         Nikola frowned, then pouted. “I see what you’re doing here … you’re trying to butter me up … stroke my ego. Feminine wiles.”

 

         Helen pleaded, “Please, I need your help to do this.”

 

         He considered her though a curtain of half-closed eyelashes, folding his hands under his chin. “You know, I’d be more easily persuaded if it wasn’t just my ego you were stro-“

 

         He heard the click of the safety of her gun being turned off, and then the cold press of the muzzle pushed dangerously against his thigh. His breath hitched in his throat, but he grinned despite himself.

 

         She arched an eyebrow. “Finish that thought. I dare you.”

 

         “You’re hot when you’re angry,” he whispered nervously, breathing an inward sigh of relief when Helen discreetly re-holstered her pistol.

 

         “I could just pistol-whip you cold and drag you back to Old City until you cooperate.”

 

         Nikola leaned in so close their noses were almost touching, the tips of his teeth showing as he grinned. “I love it when you talk dirty.”

 

         “Nikola, are you going to help me or not?”

 

         He withdrew, frowning. “And if I can’t?”

 

         She gave an irritable huff, blowing a stray lock of hair from her face. “Can’t or won’t?”

 

         He glared at her. “Can’t … I despise having to say this, but that thing scares me. I don’t know what would happen if I came face to face with it, but I _don’t_ want to find out.”

 

         “Oh, Nikola,” she pouted mockingly at him, “John’s lived with it for a century – surely you’re capable of handling it as well.”

 

         Nikola’s face darkened and he looked away from her. She had the uneasy feeling again that this had something to do with when she thought he had died. She just wished she knew what it all was … and why she somehow seemed to be the center of it all.

 

***

 

         Will put down his phone and rubbed his ear. He was amazed it could feel sore just from making calls, but his ear had been glued to the phone for over four hours.

 

         “How long do you think the doc’s going to be away for?” Hank asked, pressing a can of soda into his hand. Will gratefully drank, he’d been parched, and realized he hadn’t eaten all day.

 

         “Knowing Professor Hidden Agenda? I’ve got no idea. But I think we’ve got to hold down the fort for awhile.”

 

         Henry passed him his tablet and crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay, looking at the specifications for the containment cell they’ve made, I’ve been looking at power patterns, surges, radiation signatures … and I’m starting to think whoever this is has gone off the map.”

 

         “What do you mean?” Henry brought up a global map with the tracking dots of different satellites and power lines.

 

         “It’s blank. I don’t see any spikes or surges where they shouldn’t be. I’m starting to think they’ve gone somewhere super remote away from the main satellite grid. If I wanted to narrow the search I’d have to start assessing individual municipalities and local grids … but they wouldn’t have the juice. I’m starting to think they might actually be running off their own power source. There’s no way they can draw off that much energy and go undetected. They’ve got their own battery.”

 

         Will let out a low whistle, flicking through the rest of the reports Henry had drawn up. “Is there a reactor powerful enough to provide that kind of juice?”

 

         “Yeah … if Genius built it. Or if they had access to some of the minerals in Hollow Earth.”

 

         Will caught on and slapped Henry on the shoulder. “Well _done_ , Henry.” Hank beamed. “I’m going to put some calls through to Ranna and see if she can enlighten us on Sanctuary activities down below.”

 

         “Will.” Henry grabbed Will’s phone and held it out of arm’s reach, a stern look in his eye. “Eat something first. Don’t make me tell on you to Biggie.”

 

         “That is just so not cool, man.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katherine Johnson was the wife of Robert Underwood Johnson, two people who were among a very few group the real Tesla ever considered his friends or could get close to him. Robert Johnson was the editor of Century Magazine and published many articles on Tesla's exploits. Katherine Johnson is arguably, and in most popular opinion the only woman Nikola Tesla ever really loved. They shared a lengthy correspondence the entire time they knew each other, there are many records of their letters, although these letters only ever overtly express a platonic love (as Tesla was celibate).
> 
> Some influence for this relationship was also drawn from the Electric Company Theatre's play "Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla", where the undertones of a romantic attachment, often thwarted by a growing eccentricity, are further explored.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A kiss. And a prison.

THIRTEEN

***

 

 _New York, 1904._

         “I’ve never seen you look so worried, Nikola.”

 

         He wiped his hands with a cloth square from his pocket, and then attended to the faint sheen of sweat on his brow. Helen packed away her medical tools into her black kit bag.

 

         “She’ll be fine. The worst of the fever is over. You know, the physicians here in New York are more than capable of looking after her.”

 

         “Yes, well, you’re the best physician I know.” He spoke without a trace of irony or teasing, and she looked at him worriedly.

 

         “She must be very important to you.”

 

         He didn’t respond, sitting down shakily into a chair. His hair was disheveled and it looked as if he hadn’t slept or eaten in a week. She cast a cursory glance over his workstation – it held the clutter of a distracted mind. Projects half-finished and tinkered on without any specific goal in mind, which was unlike him.

 

         “You aren’t … oh, Nikola, you can’t have been that foolish.”

 

         He looked sharply at her. “Helen, don’t be so beastly. You have no right to question someone’s integrity like that.”

 

         She snapped her bag shut loudly. “I know you better than anyone on this earth, and I _know_ when something’s going on.”

 

         “Not as well as you’d think! Just because you aren’t the only woman I call my friend…” He stopped, swallowing his words, and then sneered, “Jealousy is an unattractive colour on you.”

 

         “ _Jealous?_ ” Helen looked at him agape, clenching her fist so she wouldn’t slap him. “She’s a _married woman_ , Nikola! This is very foolish of you.”

 

         He lifted his head from his hands, sadness and anger strangling his voice. “As foolish as giving your affections to a man with a predilection for carving up whores?”

 

         Helen slapped him then, her chest heaving and her hand hot as she saw him topple back in his chair. She hadn’t even realized she had struck him, but he lifted himself from the floor, a cut open on his cheek from one of her rings.

 

         Trembling with rage, she spun on her heel and left the room determined never to speak to him again.

 

         She forgave him since; they had known each other for too long to let harsh words completely ruin their friendship. When Katherine Johnson died she knew he needed a friend that dark day more than anything, but she stayed in London hidden away in her lab where she wouldn’t be able to betray herself.

 

***

 

         Helen pressed an ear to the bathroom door, heard nothing outside, and cautiously slipped off her shirt. She had locked the door more for her peace of mind – he could easily pop the lock with just a pointed look if he wanted to, but he had never purposefully walked in on her showering before.

 

         There had only been the once, but he was just as shocked as she was (even before she shot him in the chest) and that was Nigel’s idea of an April Fool’s trick. He’d hung from the roof by his underpants when Nikola finally caught up to him.

 

         Helen showered quickly, grateful to be out of her wet clothes, and changed into a clean, if somewhat loose, pair of slacks and blouse. He wasn’t in the hotel suite when she left the bathroom, and she found him in the hotel bar.

 

         He passed her a glass of wine as she sat down beside him. “So, what do you propose to do with a malevolent, angry elemental _if_ we can actually contain it?”

 

         She sipped at the wine, finally feeling her body relax. The rain poured relentlessly outside, drumming down on the glass panes. “Better we have it then it land in the hands of a madman. We’d effectively neutralize whatever they’re trying to blackmail the United Nations with. And it would give us leverage to get back John.”

 

         He snorted, fiddling with the stem of his wineglass. “I was with you until the last point.” He saw her disgusted glare, and backpedalled. “When you and James got rid of the Tunisian fire elemental during the war, it created a fissure in the earth that contributed to Carentan. And Johnny’s little parasite makes the fire elemental look like a kitten. Maybe it’s a bad idea for us to try and put a leash on it.”

 

         Helen chewed her lower lip, she had turned that thought over and over in her mind a thousand times already. “No, we can’t just chase it off somewhere else, we will have to make sure it can be contained indefinitely. That’s where you would come in. We need a trap … and we need a cage. And I think you’re the only person who could design it. It’s a being of energy, it’s right up your alley.”

 

         Nikola considered this, his lips twisting in a reticent frown. “If the energy cage they have for John is as effective as you say it is, I might be able to modify the design … but I highly doubt it will be sufficient.” He tapped a finger to his lips. “And that’s running before we can walk. How do we find it? It could be anywhere in the world.”

 

         She chose her next words carefully. “You _have_ managed to access every network of energy world-wide simultaneously.”

 

         Nikola stiffened, but his tone remained dismissive. “We could just wave Johnny in the air and see if his little friend wants to go back home.”

 

         Helen glared at him overtop the rim of her glass. “You can’t be serious.” She saw him try to hide back into his wine again and reached out for his arm. His eyes were stormy and she lifted them up to meet hers with a delicate finger under his chin. “Would you really have that thing go back into John?”

 

         She saw a hint of the young man who had shook her hand at Oxford many decades ago. He blinked, and it was gone. “I’m not sure, to be quite honest.”

 

         Helen drew her hand away from him and looked out the window. A streak of lightning flashed through the sky. She remembered hearing the eerie strains of an old Billie Holiday song, her favourite, rising up from the streets of Old City and serenading her. The lightning streaked across the sky that day as well, brilliant as Zeus’ wrath.

 

         “When’s the last time we walked through a thunderstorm together?”

 

         Nikola blinked in surprise, but automatically answered, “Berlin. August eleventh in nineteen thirty-two.”

 

         She got up and held out her hand to his. “Far too long.”

 

***

 

         They walked in the rain, hand in hand, Helen uncaring that the heaven’s pour had soaked her a second time that day. Thunder rumbled in the sky, he could feel its vibration in his very bones, and lightning – magnificent lightning ripped the clouds apart.

 

         Nine times … it was nine times now they’d held hands. His heart beat so hard against his chest he was sure his ribcage would break. Three by three. Three to three. Three of three. Where would this lead him? What black magic was this going to unlock?

 

         She brought them to a bridge overlooking the Thames, churning and spitting below them. She let go of his hand and leant against the side, looking down into the water.

 

         Her hair, wet and slicked by the rain, looked like a swirl of black oil against her blouse. He was recalling that day, the expedition they had taken to Central America. Lightning struck a tree beside them, flames helplessly licking up its trunk before being extinguished. He promised her they would be safe, but she protested that he’d act as a lightning rod and she was in no mood for being electrocuted. They found a rocky overhang, and huddled together, holding each other for warmth.

 

         His hands shook as they undressed. He never meant to close his eyes the few times they slipped shut, hoping to commit every second in his memory. They laughed about it afterward and it somehow remained unspoken between them years since. And, surprising even to him, he felt no bitterness, no resentment … not for it having happened, and not for it never having repeated itself.

 

         “Remember what you promised,” she said, almost to herself and he felt like one of the lightning bolts struck him where he stood. If his feet weren’t rooted in the ground he would have staggered back from the shock. She looked at him, caught his surprise, and he knew he was trapped.

 

         “What does that mean, Nikola? What does any of it mean? You’ve run away, hidden yourself, pretended to die _again_ and I have no idea why.”

 

         “It’s nothing to concern yourself with,” he whispered, screaming at his body to back away from her.

 

         “Oh?” She pinned him to the spot with the inexplicable look in her eyes. “My lights show? My funeral? …that’s nothing to concern myself with?”

 

         He thought desperately of throwing himself into the Thames to escape her, but she suddenly reached over and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him towards her. “You never do anything without a reason to … and somehow your agenda is written all over whatever it is that is happening to me, to my Sanctuary.”

 

         He growled back, “I’m sorry to have disturbed you so.” He grasped her hands, trying to pull them off but she tightened her grip and shook him.

 

         “How long have I known you?”

 

         “A hundred and thirty-four years,” he stammered. The anger melted from her face and she looked rather heartbroken.

 

         “And do you really think after all that time I don’t know there were only two women you were ever in love with?” He was too stunned, frozen, to know what to think or say. She pressed a cool, light kiss to his lips, the rain mingling on their faces. She whispered into his ear, “I’ve just lived too long for it to have had a sweet end. I’m too old not to know our friendship will last longer and mean more than any fairytale.”

 

         He gazed wistfully at her, a tremulous smile on his lips. “Maybe another century or two and you’ll stop being so pragmatic.”

 

         His hands lighted on her face, and he gently pulled her to him. She offered no resistance, and they kissed on the bridge as if right out of a storybook. Small sparks of electricity shot from his lips to hers, illuminating the small spaces between their two worlds colliding and he closed his eyes this time.

 

         Breathless, they finally pulled apart, and he rested his forehead against hers. The rain rushed by his ears and he felt like he was underwater, drowning. “I know … sometimes even _I_ know. I let you go the night I died.” He drew away from her, a more familiar smirk on his face as he pretended to rub a pain from his chest. “But resurrection hurts more than you’d think. Trust me, I’ve done it twice now.”

 

         “I’ll take your word for it,” she said with a smile, and reached for his hand again, clasping it tightly in hers as she looked up to the heavens and marveled at the rain.

 

         Ten times now she’d held his hand. Damn the woman! Could she never keep the pattern right?

 

***

 

         John lifted his face up from his knees, a deep laugh rumbling in his chest.

 

         He was suspended in a globe made of crackling blue light. It was a prison made of energy. He couldn’t teleport away from it. He couldn’t break through the barrier, the recoil of power would kill him instantly.

 

         He hung in the globe, this contained pocket of the world, as they waited for the elemental to be attracted to the fuel source around it, reach out an exploratory branch, and be sucked into the prison. Either that, or for him to die.

 

         He laughed at them, telling them to get it over with and just shoot him. But they were being cautious. The elemental was still something no one knew much about. They felt traumatizing the body of the host could harm the elemental or cause it to react unpredictably.

 

         Instead, his prison was also his electric chair. The slow, gradual and constant dose of radiation emitting from the energy cage would shut down his vital organs eventually, coaxing the elemental away from its favourite harbour of the last century. They monitored his condition, played cards in the observation deck, and sometimes made shadowy threats. He laughed at them all.

 

         He was John Druitt, the hollow man. There was nothing inside of him worth stealing, and he would hang there, curled into a ball, laughing, knowing that his best secret was that he had none at all.

 

         Helen … his only regret was that there would be one less friend to help her celebrate the anniversary of the Five.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will tries to enlist the help of Hollow Earth. Helen and Nikola put their heads together. And John meets our Shadowy assailant...

FOURTEEN

***

 

         When the Big Guy entered the sick room to bring the next round of medication drips for Ylerin he was hit by the scent of death. It clung to the curtains, it circled heavy in the air and it framed her face even as she sat up in bed to greet him. His people had always been superior healers for their reverence and connection to all life, and he recognized a dying thing when he saw one.

 

         She seemed to sense his hesitation even though he showed no outward sign of it, and smiled wanly as he changed her drip feeds.

 

         “From what I have come to understand of humans, they are ruled by this fear of death,” she remarked casually as he checked her pulse. “We merely view it was a passage to a greater time.”

 

         He grunted softly. “My people call it the Next Journey.”

 

         Her eyelids grew heavy as the painkillers entered freshly into her system. “Do your people have something similar to our goddess?”

 

         “He who walks through the silent forest. The old father.”

 

         She blinked slowly, struggling with the overwhelming urge to sleep. “I am old. Worn. Like a leaking sieve, I can feed and fill myself over and over again but I am slowly trickling away. Soon it won’t be worth the effort it will take to sustain myself.” She smiled to herself, as if chancing upon a happy recollection. “The humans … they are so quaint, aren’t they? They are only here for such a short time that they never really get to do or finish anything. They build great monuments in the hopes their legacy will be remembered once they pass. Even the blood demon hasn’t gotten over that conceit.”

 

         The Big Guy grunted. “Conceit’s the word for him, alright.”

 

         She gave a soft laugh, sinking further into the bed. “Yes. But I guess it would be a pity for beings to live only so long and have the majority of their time plagued by misery and a shadow war.”

 

         The Big Guy understood the knowing look she gave him and tucked her arm under her blanket so she wouldn’t catch a chill. “I won’t let Doctor Magnus know. In your own time.”

 

         “My thanks, son of the old father.” She finally let her eyes close and fell into a light sleep, conserving her energy. She didn’t hear as the Big Guy slipped out of the room and turned out the lights.

 

***

 

         “I’m afraid Dr. Zimmerman that I simply can’t allow that kind of information to be free domain to whoever asks. You know as well as I the right to confidentiality that carries from Hollow Earth to the surface. Hollow Earth will not be breaking that understanding.”

         Oh, Hollow Earth. Will had to fight down the urge to kick over his desk, especially with the impassive Ranna watching from the other end of the video feed. Uptight, all of them. He had never had to deal with so much red tape before.

 

         “Have you had dealings with anyone on the surface who _isn’t_ connected to the Sanctuary network?”

 

         She looked rather offended and her smile became more plastic and icy. He could feel the biting rebuke in her tone. “Dr. Zimmerman, we have no obligations to deal with the Sanctuary exclusively or for you to make such demands, so I would keep the accusatory tone of your voice in check. We also have no obligation to impart that kind of information, but to set your mind at ease – no, Hollow Earth in an effort to preserve a secure level of discretion has only dealt with Sanctuary operatives.”

 

         Will was mildly ashamed that he had come to this, but he began pleading with the video screen. “Ranna, I’m not asking for anything that would require a security clearance. This wouldn’t jeopardize you or Hollow Earth – but it will help us clear Magnus’ name. _Please_.”

 

         Ranna stiffened. “I’m afraid what your thoughts are in terms of security clearances doesn’t inform our policies. Now if you’d excuse me, I have another appointment.”

 

         The screen went blank and Will let his head fall to his desk. A bust. _Damnit_. He was about to cut the video feed when Aurelian stayed his hand.

 

         “Wait.”

 

         A few seconds later and the video feed terminated from Hollow Earth’s end. “What is it?”

 

         Aurelian nodded towards the video screen. “She is clever at hiding her true thoughts, but I believe I saw something contrary to her words. A desire to help you … a need for secrecy … but to do so would be improper? Something she had to do quietly.”

 

         Will thought on that for a moment and then radioed for Henry. “Hank, I need you to go over this copy of the video conference I just had. It might be in the last few seconds of transmission. A hidden file, some compressed data – anything. We’ll have to hunt for it.”

 

         If Ranna had sent them something then Henry would be able to find it. Will looked up at Aurelian with a half-hearted grin. “I just want to see the look on Magnus’ face when we beat her to punch while she’s holidaying in England. It’ll _kill_ her.”

 

         Aurelian blinked. “Your sense of competition is confusing and mildly disturbing, William.”

 

***

 

         Helen stirred slightly, slipping slowly back into wakefulness. She felt soft sheets … she was still wearing her clothes … not her own bed, then. The room was dark but there was the ghost of illumination coming from the distance.

 

         She opened her eyes and absently curled her fingers around the hotel blanket. She was still shaking off the warm, soft cocoon of sleep. What time was it? How long had she been sleeping?

 

         Nikola was at the small table at the other end of the hotel room, sparks flying from a small acetylene torch he held in his hand. He shot over his shoulder, “You snore.”

 

         Helen blinked, as if to see if she were still dreaming, and dryly remarked, “Nikola, you’ll burn down the hotel doing that. Can’t you wait until you have a proper workstation?”

 

         He snorted. “How long was I at the Waldorf? I never burned down my room there.”

 

         Helen shook the pleasant heaviness from her limbs and walked over to where he was working. It appeared to be a small generator of some kind. “That’s the bait?”

 

         “It is indeed,” he murmured as he soldered a small plate back into place. Tapping his finger lightly against the rapidly cooling metal, he held it up so she could have a better look. “All I have to do now is calibrate it so it projects an energy signature identical to one of John’s zorts.”

 

         Helen pulled a face. “Zort?”

 

         “Yeah, you know…” Nikola made a flapping motion with his hands. “…when he teleports.”

 

         “You really are horrible at naming things.”

 

         He glared at her and set the delicate instrument down. She saw now it was a small, beautiful sphere of glass, metal and wires. She picked it up and saw a small groove in the surface, and Nikola noted, “That would be the on switch.”

 

         “You’re positive it will work?”

 

         “Oh, don’t insult me with your doubt. It will work beautifully. The question is … what the hell do we do once we get it to chase after us?”

 

         Helen passed the sphere back to Nikola. “I have been thinking of that. The elemental entered John when he first started teleporting and it managed to become part of him during transit when he became converted into energy. We need to find a way to trick it, to keep it in a permanent state of transit or mid-conversion as it were.”

 

         “To prevent it from ever finalizing the process…” Nikola frowned. “That’s like keeping a time bomb. In a crystal box. There are so many things that could happen, an unwanted power surge, a structural flaw, a depleted power source – all it takes is a nanosecond and the elemental is free again.”

 

         “An EM shield doesn’t have the possibility of a structural flaw.”

 

         “It also doesn’t have a perpetual power source.” Nikola sighed, rubbing his face tiredly as he held the small sphere up.

 

         “Well, there are certain organic materials that block electro-magnetic transmissions. It would keep the elemental from ever finishing transit. Stick it in there.”

 

         “For an earthquake to come around, break the structure and set it loose again.”

 

         Helen clasped Nikola’s hand and spoke to him mock-sternly. “Pessimist. We can’t solve it all in one night. At least we find it temporary housing until we find a better solution or find a way to neutralize it completely.” She quirked a smile at him. “I never thought you would run yourself in circles to help John.”

 

         Nikola looked disgusted. “It’s an intellectual puzzle I have to solve or I’ll go mad. And you know it. Don’t pervert it into some misguided sense of duty.”

 

         “Nikola the Noble. Defender of the weak.” Helen laughed at the pained expression on his face.

 

         “Now, when you’re quite done making fun of me, send these to your wolf boy.” Nikola handed her a small data card he had modified to fit into her phone. “It’s all the plans I need to reconstruct my second prototype of the Wardenclyffe tower … the transmission system we’ll use to broadcast John’s zort signal.”

 

         Helen took the card and her face darkened as she was struck by a thought. “Nikola … all that energy … yes it might be initially attracted to the energy signature but once it arrives – you’re a veritable feeding ground for it. What will you do to protect yourself?”

 

         Nikola shrugged. “I’ll figure that out on the flight.” He saw the scandalized look on her face and shooed her away. “Plans – wolf mutt – _now_.”

 

         Helen inserted the card into her phone and began messaging Henry, trying to keep her anxiety at bay.

 

***

 

         “Has he responded at all?”

 

         “No, sir. We haven’t managed to get any sort of reaction from him, but his main systems are beginning to fail.”

 

         The man with gray hair looked over at the computer screen with a grim look on his face, his meek attendant standing nervously by. He gave a surreptitious nod to John Druitt as he inspected the findings. John felt his hackles rise at the sight of the man, but kept a calm exterior. He could sense another predator and this man reeked of it.

 

         Whatever the results stated, the man gave away nothing in his face. He calmly walked over to John with a pleasant, benign smile on his face. John looked up through hooded eyes, the blue energy crackling around him.

 

         “Well, Mr. Druitt you’ve been inside our sphere now for forty-eight hours longer than is quite safe for a normal human being. But you … you’re more special than that, aren’t you? Nevertheless, still so very human. The rate of your decline will increase exponentially over the next thirty-six hours. You are going to die, Mr. Druitt. You will hang there suspended as your lungs fail, your liver bleeds, and your immune system begins to cannibalize itself.”

 

         John gave a hollow laugh that rumbled deeply in his chest, but gave an unfortunate burble. The man continued to smile pleasantly at him.

 

         “We wanted to help you, John – may I call you John? But perhaps you feel as if the elemental inside you makes you special. Makes you more than human. You’re wrong. You are no more special than the other billions of people who walk this earth and rule and destroy it as they see fit. You don’t even have the distinction of living as a good man. Frankly, it’ll be a blessing once you die and finally your blood-soaked legacy ends with you.”

 

         To John’s dismay he couldn’t stop the wet cough that had birthed with his laugh, it tickled inside his chest and finally squirmed its way up his throat. His lips were speckled with his own blood as he coughed into his collar, angry that he had shown any sign of weakness to this gray-haired man.

 

         The man’s eyes flashed at him, a sense of vindication, and John noticed the man’s pupils were slit like a cat’s. The man was an abnormal.

 

         “You’re a perversion of nature … only abnormal because you stole the powers of another being by injecting yourself with its blood. A mutation. An aberration. A freak. Same with everyone in the Five, including the precious Doctor Magnus. Trying to play God without ever thinking of the consequences.”

 

         John knew he had to keep his temper in check, that the energy cage wouldn’t allow him to cross its barrier, but he wanted so very much to grab the man by the neck and show him exactly what an “aberration” could do.

 

         “I wonder if you’re still human enough to feel fear…” The man whispered, and then turned away from him and walked out of the room.

 

         John lowered his head, licking the blood from his lips and trying to breathe calmly and evenly so he wouldn’t cough up anymore. He _was_ afraid, but not for himself, and he knew that was the strength he had to hold onto.

[   
](http://www.sanctuaryfiction.net/viewstory.php?sid=1043&chapter=13)

  


 


	15. Chapter 15

FIFTEEN

***

 

         “How was London?”

 

         Helen saw the rather intrusively curious look on Will’s face and pulled a wry smile. “Rainy and dull.”

 

         Will folded his arms across his chest, smirking. “You know, you chase around Professor Hidden Agenda half-way across the world without fail. Like that.” He snapped his fingers for dramatic effect.

 

         Helen sighed, pausing from rummaging through her desk. “Would you want to try solving this mess without him?”

 

         Will grudgingly admitted, “No.”

 

         “You’ve a smug smile on your face, Will. Out with it.”

 

         “Hank’s had the idea that our Big Bad had to have had mineral resources from Hollow Earth to make a generator powerful enough to go undetected on main power grids.”

 

         Helen’s jaw dropped. “Oh tell me Ranna’s helped us.”

 

         “She sent us a file in secret that Henry’s managed to find. He’s decrypting it now as we speak.”

 

         “Oh well _done_ , Will.” Helen couldn’t help but laugh at the beaming proud grin on his face. She found a slim book in her desk and placed it to one side, still trying to find her old records of when they had first encountered the elemental. Will picked up the book.

 

         “What’s this? _Physiology of the Abnormal in the Southern Americas_. That’s a mouthful.”

 

         Helen looked up briefly. “Oh, that’s the medical text the Sybarite sent me for my birthday. Famous collaborative work by Doctors Ernesto Arminta and Loyola Vuarez.”

 

         Will laughed. “ _That’s_ a name. Loyola.”

 

         “Very common name in that region, Will. Uncommon man though. Very unorthodox ideas of abnormal and normal medical practices, but has done a lot for the Sanctuary.” She sat back into her chair, coming up empty-handed. “Bugger it, I must have left it somewhere else. How soon do you think Henry will have those records?”

 

         Will absent-mindedly flipped through the medical text. “Depends on when Tesla lets him get back to it. They’re trying to reconstruct his tower thing.”

 

***

 

         “What the hell does this even _mean_?” Henry threw down the blueprint page in front of him, utterly flummoxed. Nikola looked over disinterestedly before returning to the wires he was delicately re-circuiting.

 

         “You disappoint me, Heinrich.”

 

         “Seriously, man – you’ve _put in_ mistakes, codes and traps in your designs so no one can copy your work. How the hell do you expect me to do anything without any clues?”

 

         Nikola rolled his eyes. “Well, _dude_ – use three to the power of three for most of the dimensions, and the circuitry grid is a sudoku puzzle.”

 

         Henry blinked incredulously and looked at the blueprint again, squinting. “Really?”

 

         Nikola shrugged. “I was bored.”

 

         Henry pulled out a pad of paper and started on the necessary calculations. “So what does this thing do?”

 

         “It’s an amplifier.”

 

         Henry snorted. “That’s it?”

 

         Nikola glared at him through a small shower of sparks shooting from the circuitry board. “It’s an amplifier that when organically linked to me is easily more powerful than ten large hadron colliders and can override any power board made by man.”

 

         Henry gave a small “oh” and Nikola merely pointed at himself and mouthed, “genius”.

 

         A small beeping suddenly sounded from Henry’s pocket and he fumbled as he dug through his pants for his phone. Nikola moaned, “What have I said about phones while you’re working?”

 

         Henry looked at his phone screen and excitedly held it up. “My decryption’s done! Computer – quick.” He urgently held out his hand and Nikola passed him the portable tablet. Henry flicked through his files and Nikola sidled over so he could read over Henry’s shoulder.

 

         “There – reinforced crystal and glass, follow that delivery line.”

 

         Henry scrolled through the records of that particular shipment and they both breathed “cirillium” at the same time when they alighted upon it. Henry’s eyes widened. “Seventy pounds of it split over eleven installments … that’s worth more money than I can make in a year.”

 

         Nikola urgently slapped Henry’s shoulder. “ _Which Sanctuary ordered it?_ ”

 

***

 

         “Asuncion, Paraguay.”

 

         Helen looked at the tablet, astonished. “ _Paraguay_?”

 

         “It’s always the quiet ones you have to look out for,” Nikola muttered. Helen passed the tablet back to Henry, gnawing on her lower lip.

 

         “You’re sure it’s them?”

 

         Henry nodded grimly, tucking the tablet under his arm. “The cirillium alone is still pretty clear evidence, but they also have reinforced crystal and glass, large amounts of EM-dampening ore … all the stuff you need for an energy prison.”

 

         “But why _this_ Sanctuary?” Kate circled back to the question all foremost and present in their minds. “Of all the places to have a grudge against you…”

 

         “I don’t know…” Helen’s mouth hardened as she crossed her arms against her chest. “But we know who they are now. It’s time to end this once and for all. Nikola, you have the device?”

 

         Nikola nodded gravely. He had modified his bait signal for the energy elemental with a built-in EM shield that would trigger once the elemental was contained. It worked on a dead switch where once activated could never be reset or reprogrammed. The shield would draw power from the elemental itself. The more it resisted, the more powerful the shield would become.

 

         “I helped,” Henry added with a cheeky grin.

 

         “You have so little to be proud of I don’t have the heart to take this achievement away from you,” Nikola drawled.

 

         “Nikola,” Helen growled warningly. “All right then, start broadcasting the signal. We’ll all have to remain alert over the next twenty-four hours. Everyone make sure you have your stunners on you. And remember, they’ll only be useful in deflecting or distracting the elemental momentarily.”

 

         Will, Kate and Henry all pulled out their phones that had been programmed with touch-sensitive alarms. Should anyone encounter the elemental they would sound their alarms for immediate reinforcement.

 

         “Let’s just hope it doesn’t blow up your house a second time,” Nikola said.

 

         Helen sighed. “Such faith you have in me.”

 

***

 

         Aurelian sat by the windowsill in Ylerin’s sick room, looking up at the night sky. The moon was but a silver crescent, a mere sliver, an eye only open a crack, and a small amount of its light shone through the glass.

 

         “You’ve grown too fond of them.”

 

         Ylerin laughed softly into her pillow. “So have you.”

 

         Aurelian smiled wanly, his only gesture of acknowledgement, and then suddenly stiffened. Ylerin sat up, and motioned for him. Swiftly he glided over to her bedside and silver mist began to bleed from his mouth, sucked greedily into her nostrils. Her eyelids fluttered as she fed for a reserve of energy and whispered, “Something dark is coming.”

 

         He looked deeply into her eyes. “This isn’t our fight.”

 

         She grinned at him, brushing aside her last chance to distance herself from the coming events. “It’s the last one I’ll get to have.”

 

***

 

         The signal had been broadcasting for ten hours. Nikola remained rooted in his seat, his hand resting on top of the sphere at the needle of the small tower he and Henry had reconstructed in the lab. His eyes were closed as he felt and nudged his way through different power lines, intuitively dampening or broadening the signal to create as wide an umbrella as possible.

 

         Helen sat nervously beside him. She had taken him aside quietly to ask him once again what safety measures he had taken for himself and he had brushed her aside with a non-committal answer. Henry’s eyes were glued to his computer screen as they saw a visualization of the map Nikola’s tower was creating. Kate paced around the room, as ever a creature in need of action, and Will flicked absently through the medical text for want of something to do.

 

         Nikola’s eyes snapped open and he muttered, “Get ready” just as Aurelian and Ylerin burst into the room.

 

         The metal frame of the tower suddenly crackled with surges of energy and Nikola’s hand snapped back as if it were burned. The lights in the laboratory flickered and the computer screens flickered and hissed with snow.

 

         Kate already had her stunner out, pointed towards the tower grimly. Nikola backed away from it unconsciously, he and the Sybarites seemed to be able to sense intuitively where the elemental was while everyone else blindly guessed by the mayhem being created.

 

         “Where the hell is it?” Kate growled in frustration. Helen firmly nudged Nikola and he quickly dug out the signal and cage device. It glowed brighter as he dialed up the strength of the signal and the lights in the lab burst, sprinkling broken glass over their heads.

 

         “Careful everyone!” Helen shouted as she watched different parts of the lab systematically power down or simply overload with power surges.

 

         Nikola’s face had gone ashen gray as he held out the signal device, pumping it with more and more power to attract the elemental. Helen had never seen fear so naked on his face.

 

         The tower suddenly began to surge again, whining hideously with metal screeches and crackling. Something began to coil around the sphere, like a swarm of black flies.

 

         “Steady, blood demon,” Aurelian called out encouragingly, moving slowly towards Nikola and the elemental.

 

         “Come on…” Nikola muttered through grit teeth, “…here kitty, kitty…”

 

         The black mass suddenly gathered itself together in the blink of an eye, forming a huge cloud and hurtled itself towards Nikola. Helen barely had time to cry out when she noticed.

 

         At the last second, Aurelian threw himself at Nikola, knocking him to the ground, the glass sphere launching into the air as the elemental collided with it.

 

         Ylerin caught the device neatly in her hand before it could fall to the ground and shatter. The device flickered dangerously and spat electric sparks, everyone could sense the raging elemental beating helplessly inside the shield walls, but the device held true.

 

         Nikola lay panting on the floor, staring wide-eyed at the device as if his brain was still catching up to the fact that he was whole and sound. Aurelian helped him to his feet and clapped him heartily on the back.

 

         “I think that’s what they say in baseball as a ‘nice catch’. Right, William?”

 

         Will just nodded dumbly. Kate similarly was only just able to come to her senses and lower her gun. She breathed, “Whoa … that happened _so_ fast.”

 

         “I think I just peed myself,” Henry whispered quietly.

 

         Helen similarly was still reeling, but lightly grasped Nikola’s arm. “Well, that didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped, but it worked. Look, Nikola, you’re still brilliant as ever.” She delicately took the glass sphere from Ylerin and held it up. They could all see the black swarm writhing inside. “One energy elemental.”

 

         Nikola rubbed at his chest, adrenaline still coursing through his body. “Remind me next time that helping you is dangerous for my health.”

 

         “Well, we got our bargaining chip,” Will said. “I think it’s time we made a house call.”


	16. Chapter 16

SIXTEEN

***

 

 _New York 1888_

 _Nikola,_

 _I know it has been a long time since I have written, but you yourself are notorious for being unable to keep correspondences. I wonder if you have even opened any of my letters, or if they litter your desk along with other minutiae._

 _I remember you saying to me before you left for America that I shouldn’t fear your absence as I would never need you as much as I anticipated. I find this difficult to write-_

 _I know James has telegrammed you about the Whitechapel murders_

 _I shot him, Nikola. I have his blood on my hands._

 _If ever I needed you, my dearest friend, it would be this hour._

 _Yours,_

 _Helen._

He folded the letter to create three equal sections and tucked it away into his notebook, ignoring the tremor in his hands. He had no idea how to respond to her missive and he found himself later lacking the courage to write back. What could he say to her? That he had been vindicated in his misgivings of her engagement with Druitt all along?

 

         How petty and selfish that would be…

 

         She asked him many years later in the ghostly light garden of Colorado Springs if he had read any of her letters. That one sprung to mind immediately, but he made dismissive noises that he hadn’t read as many as he would have liked to.

 

         He certainly couldn’t tell her that the letter was most precious to him for the last line alone.

 

***

 

         Nikola refused to carry the small cage that trapped the energy elemental on his person, so Helen had it with her in a reinforced pocket of her coat. While he made scathing remarks about how he had already done so much of the work that he didn’t want to be burdened further, he couldn’t fool her from ignoring the genuine tremor of fear in his voice whenever it was mentioned.

 

         He, unexpectedly, had fallen asleep fitfully on the plane. Sometimes twitching in his restless slumber, chased by some awful nightmare. Helen thought again of those mysterious words “… _remember what you promised_ …” but contentedly kept her peace on the subject.

 

         The Sybarites had insisted they come along as well. Aurelian discreetly fed silver wisps to Ylerin regularly on the flight, and she had regained a more normal pallor than the sickly one she had fallen into.

 

Kate had plugged into her walkman, fastidiously cleaning her guns as she was apt to do when she was anxious. Helen was just grateful this was her private plane, rather than a commercial flight. Will was flipping through the medical text again, and suddenly put it down and looked at Helen. “These guys kind of have a touch of mad genius about them.”

 

         She quirked a smile at him. “What do you mean?”

 

         “Their theories of abnormal evolution and gene mutation – and that actually the abnormals are probably more ‘normal’ than we are, for lack of a better term. That we’re probably just diluted mutations of abnormals and we didn’t come first at all.”

 

         Helen nodded agreeably. “They’re probably right, they certainly advocated a very radical and new approach to classifying abnormals and humans. Vuarez is a bit of an extremist though.”

 

         Will looked puzzled, his eyebrow raised. “Is?”

 

         “He’s still alive, both doctors are abnormals themselves, though Arminta died twenty years ago. Vuarez … was probably the more controversial of the pair. His line of work is probably closest to what we view as eugenics, except in the abnormal world. Bit tragic, really. A lot of his research and projects were shut down by the Sanctuary.”

 

         Will put down the medical text, something forming in the back of his mind. “Why?”

 

         “He wanted to experiment on gene mutations in humans to form a base study to analyze the evolutionary pattern in abnormals. But his work mainly went without funding and approval because of his proposed experimentations on humans. It became a bit of an equality issue, as while the more radical experiments were banned for ethical reasons, he had many which were quite benign that we use on animals and such all the time in the medical field.”

 

         Will looked at her pointedly, “Magnus. Come _on_.”

 

         She looked at him confused. “What?”

 

         Will held up the text, his eyes boring into hers. “You’re telling me this Vuarez is a scientist in the network. And his name is _Vuarez_.”

 

         Helen blinked in shock. “But … he retired decades ago. And he never worked in Paraguay, he was based in Rio de Janeiro...” She let out a shaky breath. “I’ve been foolish overlooking this, haven’t I?”

 

         Will had the grace to merely nod and Helen dug into her coat for her phone. She tapped into a basic cache of the Sanctuary network database and looked through department transfers and rehires.

 

         “I’m right, aren’t I?” Will said.

 

         Helen groaned, holding her face in her hand. “But _why_? Why target me? Why commission the murders of innocent women, leak evidence of the Ripper case to intelligence networks, threaten the UN … it’s unfathomable.”

 

         Nikola suddenly groaned beside them, stirring in his sleep, and half-awake muttered, “Desperate men … do desperate things…”

 

***

 

         Helen sat on a small overturned tree by the side of the road, feeling the small weight of the glass sphere against her stomach. It was so light it was as if it weren’t even there. It was amazing to think how much power and destructive force was held in the delicate cage.

 

         She could hear Will and Kate chattering away with Henry on a satellite phone, going over the Asuncion Sanctuary’s security protocols, entrances and exits, and coming up with the best way of announcing themselves. The Sybarites had already dryly suggested they just knock on the front door, and she was inclined to agree with them.

 

         She felt the tree shift as Nikola sat down beside her. She glanced at him with a smile, before returning her gaze to the Sanctuary just a few hundred yards in front of them.

 

         He surprised her by softly asking, “Have I disappointed you somehow?”

 

         “What do you mean, Nikola?” She asked.

 

         “Oh, I don’t know … in waffling about this I guess. Maybe if I’d decided to really start helping sooner—”

 

         She hushed him, shaking her head and brushing away his apology. He merely shrugged and with a small grin said, “I never like to look un-gentlemanly.”

 

         “You’ve behaved yourself rather well, this time.”

 

         He stood up and offered out his hand to her. “To the three?”

 

         She felt a small pang in her chest at the missing two who she wished dearly could still be with them, but felt glad as well for finally having some broken bonds mended between the remainder of the Five.

 

         He clung to her hand a moment longer than necessary as they both surveyed the small fortress with their friend locked inside.

 

***

 

         John felt the next spray of blood fly from his lips, attempting in vain to stifle it in his chest, but failing as he coughed. His throat burned and his breathing was laboured.

 

         He hung there, still grimly determined not to despair. If he could buy them just one more day, one more hour from this lunatic, and he would be at peace with himself.

 

         Doctor Vuarez looked at him with cold eyes, and John laughed at him, baring his pink-smeared teeth at the man out of spite. “Poke me and prod me,” he thought, “but you’ll never truly know me.”

 

         “Doctor … you won’t believe this.”

 

         Vuarez looked to the screen his assistant was pointing at and John saw his eyebrows shoot up in alarm. Before he could wonder at what had so startled the doctor, the door to the laboratory swung open and he saw Kate with one of the lab workers in a stranglehold, her gun pointed to his temple.

 

         _Oh, Helen, you didn’t…_

To John’s dismay he saw Will, Helen, Nikola and the pale pair enter next. _No, no, no …_ they weren’t supposed to come here to this death trap.

 

         Helen’s eyes were full of fear, anger and a flash of hope when she saw John, and she immediately trained her gaze to Vuarez. She flashed a steely grin at him and in a dangerously cheerful voice chirped, “Doctor.”

 

         Vuarez gave her a shark’s grin back, his voice just as evenly tempered. “Doctor Magnus.”

 

         “You’ve been giving me a lot of trouble recently,” She commented mildly in a wild understatement. Vuarez hid his surprise at seeing her alive well, and merely nodded courteously back to her.

 

         She held up a small glass sphere with what looked like a writhing black mass inside and said, “I believe you were looking for this.”

 

         Vuarez couldn’t hide his surprise this time and an ugly expression of shock and rage flashed by his face. John knew instantly what she had brought and his heart dropped. For all the lecturing she had given him on doing the foolish, noble thing she had neglected her own preaching astoundingly.

 

         “Now, you let my man go and you can have this.”

 

         Vuarez laughed bitterly. “You really think I believe you’ll just hand the elemental over to me? Doctor Magnus, I’m not as naïve as you’re playing.”

 

         She shrugged dismissively, uncaring. “You’re right, let’s just be honest with each other then. You let him go, you surrender your lab and yourself to me. You’ll be placed under arrest and will face a trial with the Heads of Houses, and you will likely face a full criminal trial for the woman you murdered. I suspect, though, that you aren’t agreeable to these terms.”

 

         “Not at all.” A gunshot suddenly rang out, but the doctor was a poor shot and it buried itself harmlessly into the wall a foot from Kate’s shoulder. Kate snarled and pointed the gun to Vuarez’s head, pushing her hostage away from her. If Vuarez didn’t care for the safety of his men it was no use holding one as leverage.

 

         John noticed Nikola give an imperceptible nod to the male of the pale abnormals, Aurelian was it? The male suddenly flew towards the security guards by the circuit box, knocking their heads together and bleeding silver mist from their noses. Nikola transformed in a split second and slashed through the circuitry, the lights in the lab flickering and the board exploding in sparks.

 

         The lab turned into a nest of mayhem after that. Shots fired out here and there, many whizzing in John’s direction and being blocked by the blue walls of energy. He couldn’t keep track of where Helen went, as the Sanctuary team scattered, either neutralizing guards or pushing lab assistants out of harm’s way. Vuarez cursed, darting off somewhere away from the rounds of fire.

 

         John noticed that the pale ones and Nikola were systematically cutting power and searching for whatever his prison was being generated by. He watched them, entranced, and wondered himself as to the power source of his cage. Would they be able to find it? How was it turned off?

 

         He was suddenly overwhelmed by another violent seizing in his chest, and he curled his head into his chest, coughing explosively and overpowered by the coppery smell of his own blood. Weak, he began to see coloured lights dance before his eyes, and to the strange orchestra of electricity, screams, and the pounding of his own heart in his ears, John fainted dead away.

 

***

 

         Helen noticed John slump over and hang slack, like a puppet with its strings cut and yelled, “Nikola!” Nikola looked over and saw John, muttering a curse under his breath, and darted to the next power frame. They were running out of time.

 

         _Where the hell had they put the generator?_ Nikola searched at a furious pace, his eyes black and his talons cutting a deadly swathe through the men who stood in his way.

 

         Kate similarly was taking no prisoners, shooting with deadly accuracy to drop anyone who was attempting to rush towards her instead of out the door. She saw a flash of gray hair out of the corner of her eye and yelled, “Doc, to your left!”

 

         Helen bolted after Vuarez, anger pumping through her veins.

 

         “Blood demon, here.” Aurelian let the man he had been draining drop to the floor, and pointed to a doorway. He had finally found someone whose memories weren’t jumbled so much by fear that he could ascertain the location of the generator. They kicked the door open and found a separate room where the generator was housed.

 

         It stood taller than Nikola and hummed with a weighty presence of energy. He couldn’t help but take a moment to admire the beauty of it, the fine craftsmanship and delicate almost artistic touch that had gone into its making. But Aurelian testing the strength of the structure brought him back to the task at hand, and he swallowed his regret that they would have to destroy it.

 

         He struck it with superhuman force and barely made a dent. “Ow,” he groaned, shaking out the tremor in his hand.

 

         Aurelian looked expectantly at him, poking his head out into the lab to see if anyone had noticed where they were. Nikola placed his hands flat against the generator and tried to feel the energy signature it was giving off, if there was a weakness anywhere, some sort of surge he could corrupt.

 

         He wouldn’t be able to overload it, it was already dispensing and cycling through planets worth of more energy than he could produce on his own without aid from his inventions. He tried siphoning the power away, but he couldn’t draw nearly enough.

 

         Aurelian looked at him incredulously. “Nothing?”

 

         Nikola growled back, “ _You_ try it.”

 

         “ _You’re_ the one they call genius!”

 

         Nikola snarled, beating his hand ineffectually against the generator’s surface. He had to find a way to switch off the power … he had to do something.

 

***

 

         Helen ducked quickly as another bullet whizzed by her head. She saw Vuarez grimace as he tried to squeeze off more rounds but was met with the dead click of an empty magazine. Cursing, he sped down the corridor, but now without needing to fear suppressing fire, Helen could run at her fastest pace.

 

         Within a few meters she had caught up to him, and daring, she launched herself along the ground, her leg swooping round and kicked his feet out from under him. Vuarez came crashing to the ground with a yell, and Helen grappled with him to keep him pinned down.

 

         Ylerin skidded into view, she had doubled round to try and cut him off in a pincer movement, and elbowed Vuarez in the back of the head as he tried to kick back. A terrible shudder ran through his body and he went limp long enough for Helen to press her gun to his head.

 

         He wheezed, his vision exploding with stars, as he tried to catch his breath, feeling the cold muzzle pressed into his forehead. Helen similarly had to calm down as she stared into the face of the man who had tried to destroy everything she had kept sacred.

 

         “You’ve murdered countless of innocent lives … of abnormal and human alike. You’ve schemed to put the whole world in a stranglehold and you’ve paid your way in blood. What … _what_ kind of ambitions does a man like you have?”

 

          Her knee was pressed into his chest so he couldn’t get up, and his laugh came out in a wheeze around the strangling weight. He blinked at her with slit eyes. “And who are you to decide who lives and who dies? Who is considered a man and who is considered a beast? You are human, to be classified and researched as any other ‘abnormal’ as you want to call me. But I don’t see you locked up in a cage like the poor souls I see in all of your Sanctuaries.”

 

         He struggled to prop himself up on his elbows, and Helen allowed him some purchase though dug the muzzle of her gun more firmly into his forehead, so he could speak.

 

“You should have left well enough alone. Human fear, xenophobia and systematic persecution are just another one of your species’ traits. The laws of nature would have willed out, species strong enough to survive would, ones that could cohabitate peacefully, perhaps in ignorance of each other, would have. But no … in your conceit you’ve decided everyone needs the charity of humans and you’ve damned us all to experiments and cages. To live by _your_ rules. You may call us ‘residents’ but your quaint euphemisms don’t disguise the fact that in your laws we’re a lesser type of being.

 

         “And if we are to live by that sort of law, does it not only make sense for us to want what you consider equal and great? And if it is denied us than shall we not revolt against the system that beholds us to it?”

 

         Helen was stunned, but grimly stared into his bewitchingly pitiful eyes as she remembered the slain bodies of those who had come to her in need of help, that she had sworn to protect as best she could. “That’s very poetic, Loyola, but your twisted sense of right has caused so much death and bloodshed. You’ve only proven the ignorant right that abnormals should be seen as dangerous and to be feared. Can’t you see you’ve gone backwards?”

 

         “Backwards?” He laughed, uncaring as to the gun held against his head, or the mayhem of screams they could hear all around them. “Every peasant rabble or human revolution has acquired hostages of war and atrocious acts to gain innovation and progress. Even on a baser level, every species has had to prove its right to survive by eliminating or controlling another one. Nature will out, Doctor Magnus.”

 

         Helen could only stare astonished at the man, who turned his eyes heavenwards and whispered, “The earth made over again in the image of her natural children. Yes … perhaps you’re right in thinking there’s something a touch whimsical about that.”

 

         Helen didn’t notice as her gun lowered slightly, overwhelmed by the sudden warring conflicts in her soul. He had gone insane with his dreams, yes, and somehow along the way they had become perverted and twisted beyond any hope of achieving good. But at the very core he had wished for the very thing she had when she built the Sanctuary.

 

         Vuarez sensed her hesitation and coiled back as if to strike, but a pair of pale hands suddenly placed themselves about his neck. Ylerin bent her head delicately and whispered sweetly into his ear, “I am a beast and I feed on you.” With a sudden, savage twist she snapped his neck.

 

         Helen stumbled away from Vuarez on shaky legs, looking up stunned at Ylerin. “You … you shouldn’t have killed him.”

 

         Ylerin gave her a soft smile, holding out her hand to help Helen to her feet. “Nature of the beast, Doctor.”

 

***

 

         Helen walked back into the main area of the laboratory in a slight daze, her head swimming with what had just happened. She saw John suspended in the blue globe of energy, his body seizing violently, and she was galvanized into action. She saw Nikola and Aurelian at the other end of the room and rushed over.

 

         “Nikola, he’s dying!”

 

         Nikola looked over at John, let out a growl of frustration, and suddenly dug his hand into Helen’s coat. She would have slapped him for the impunity if it weren’t a desperate situation. He pulled out the glass sphere with the elemental contained inside.

 

         “Nikola, _don’t_ —“

 

         “There’s no other way!” He held the sphere aloft, and then sent it hurtling towards the generator. The glass exploded against its surface, and everyone backed away, anxiety thick in the air.

 

         The small sphere of the EM shield fluctuated, the elemental raging within, and the enormous amount of power from the generator surged through, overpowering the shield. When the shield failed it looked as if the small mass burst and all of a sudden a swarm of black funneled into the generator.

 

         Nikola’s face was drained of all colour, and Helen had to grab his shoulders and wrench him back away. “Come on,” she urged and they ran out of the room.

 

         The walls of John’s cage surged, sputtered, and then suddenly disappeared. The elemental had greedily sucked away the generator’s power, cutting the main line that fed John’s prison. He dropped to the floor and Aurelian caught him just in time. Though John was much taller, he was weak and light in Aurelian’s arms. They laid him gently on the floor, and Helen dropped to her knees so she could examine him.

 

         The lights of the lab sputtered and exploded. Kate and Will rushed to where they were all gathered. Kate had some blood sprayed against the left side of her face, and her gun was holstered in her belt. For now, they were alone and without resistance.

 

         Machines whined as they shut down, and they looked around nervously as the elemental surged through the lab, free and running about a new playground.

 

         “We have to go, Magnus,” Will yelled above the din.

 

         “And let that thing run loose?” She called out back, pulling back John’s eyelids to check his pupils.

 

         “Helen,” Nikola urgently tugged on her arm. “It’s coming for John.”

 

         She looked up and felt someone, Nikola most likely, suddenly pull her back away from John. A surging black swarm rushed towards him, plunging in through his chest. Helen cried out, but strong arms held her back. John’s eyes snapped open, but then suddenly closed again. Everyone could feel the hairs on the back of their necks suddenly stick up as the elemental screamed its displeasure at a weakened host.

 

         It began to curl up out of John, crackling and surging as it searched. The blackness began to mass and hover in Nikola’s direction.

 

         Helen swore she felt the whisper of a kiss against her neck before she was shoved away from him, Will catching her so she wouldn’t stumble.

 

         The elemental reared and plunged into Nikola, disappearing down his mouth and swallowing him whole.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our story comes to a close...

SEVENTEEN

***

 

         Nikola fell to his knees, his mouth torn open in a silent scream as the elemental rushed inside of him. Once it had all disappeared within him, he fell forward, his hands barely catching his fall.

 

         “Nikola?” Helen took a step forward, though Will kept a firm hand on her arm, her voice small and hopeful.

 

         His head snapped up and his eyes were black, his teeth bared and unnaturally sharp. He rose sinuously to his feet, flexing his shoulders and gazing at them with a cold, imperious smile.

 

         “Nikola?”

 

         “That’s my name, darling, don’t wear it out.” Nikola grinned, his voice a deep, guttural tone. He casually kicked John’s inert body aside, a small groan escaping from the broken man, as he walked over to Helen. She felt rooted to the spot, unable to feel Will desperately trying to pull her away.

 

         Kate had already drawn out her gun and fired off her entire clip into Nikola. His body jerked a few times at the impact, but he merely shook himself and empty shell casings fell to the floor. He looked over at Kate mockingly and said, “Manners, manners, young lady.”

 

         With a swift movement he had knocked her to the floor, her arm lacerated and she gasped from the sudden shock of pain.

 

         Helen stared desperately at him. There must be some of the Nikola she still knew in there. What sort of mad curse was she afflicted with that all her dearest were taken by this blackness? He stepped ever closer towards her, menace colouring every movement.

 

         “And you, dear Helen, the one I loved most of all.” His voice was tinged with a bitter, ironic laugh that spoke nothing of affection. He tapped a talon mock-pensively to his lips as he considered her. “You’re the only thing that really stops me from being truly great. From achieving the kind of legacy and future I could have in the palm of my hand… ambition, ruthlessness, and the will to take it all.”

 

         “You can still have all those things, Nikola.” She fought to keep the tremor out of her voice as she tried to smile at him.

 

         “It’s a pity that I started out as human … weak and so susceptible to those impulses. You’re really the only thing that’s holding me back from fully embracing the more powerful of my ancestry.”

 

         Will placed himself in front of Helen, his stunner aimed at Nikola. He had a grim look of determination on his face, and tried to reason with the approaching vampire. “Come on, _don’t_ do this. You don’t have to do this, Tesla. You’re better than this.”

 

         “Touching.” Nikola drew his arm back, his claws gathering to a razor point and he struck, about to plunge his hand into Will’s chest when a pale figure suddenly grabbed his arm and snapped it back hard enough to break bone.

 

         Nikola growled, whirling around to face Aurelian who snarled back. Nikola cracked his arm, setting the bone back in order and was about to lunge after the offending Sybarite, when Ylerin stepped over and pulled Nikola’s face down to hers in what looked like a lover’s kiss.

 

         The howling scream that tore from his throat before it was muffled by her mouth spoke differently. She clamped down savagely onto him, and the muscles in his face grew taut as she inhaled and drained him of everything. She shook with the effort as the elemental was dragged into her as she robbed Nikola of all breath. Her veins popped up from her skin, outlined in black as she forced the elemental away and into herself.

 

         They sank to their knees, Aurelian catching them and steadying their descent, and with a last ethereal scream she suddenly fell away, sinking into Aurelian’s arms and Nikola slumped to the floor.

 

         “Hurry, hold him up.” Aurelian beckoned Will over, and they brought Nikola close enough to Aurelian that he let loose a silver wisp that disappeared down Nikola’s mouth. He opened his eyes, gasping, and trembling from the ordeal.

 

         “It won’t stay in her long, hurry!” Aurelian held up Ylerin, her eyelids fluttering, her face drained and like paper. Nikola tried to fight off his weakness and dizziness, and touched a hand to Ylerin’s arm. The first thing he could think of was to create an EM shield organically linked to him.

 

         Ylerin shuddered in Aurelian’s arms and her head slumped onto his shoulder. She was dead. The elemental screamed that it was trapped in a dead host and couldn’t flee because of the EM shield surrounding it. Its dreadful shrieks, operating on a frequency no one could truly hear, but feel in every nerve of their body, dwindled as it cannibalized its reserves of power, slowly diminishing in size.

 

         Nikola shook as he held up his hand and saw his blue shield encircled tightly around a ball of black. Experimentally, he flexed his fingers together and compressed the elemental sphere until it was a small circle in the palm of his hand.

 

         Will stammered, “Is it dead?”

 

         Nikola probed it gently, and then slowly shook his head. “No … but its weak.”

 

         Will looked over at Ylerin and gulped. “Is she dead?”

 

         Aurelian stood up, cradling Ylerin in his arms and she hung there limp and small. He smiled softly at them, sad, but not grieving. “She was dying already, Will. She is now onto a greater time.”

 

         Nikola fell back to the floor, unable to kneel or crouch for much longer. He looked about him at the destroyed laboratory, John lying unconscious a few feet away, Kate bleeding and being tended to by Helen and the dead Sybarite, his ancestral cousin.

 

         He looked over at Helen, catching her gaze and was stunned, and then silently elated to see her smile and wink back.

 

***

 

         John woke and immediately shut his eyes again, blinded by bright light. He tried again, more slowly, only opening them a crack and his surroundings swam into view. A white room. A bed. A vital signs monitor.

 

         “Morning, sunshine.” He heard a familiar drawl beside him, but from someone he hadn’t expected to see at his bedside. He turned his head slowly, his body crippled with aching pain, to see Nikola lounging in a chair with a book in his lap.

 

         “Have you come … to finish the job?” John asked weakly.

 

         Nikola looked up from the passage he was reading, his usual veneer of disinterest on his face. “Tempting, but Helen would skin me for undoing her handiwork.”

 

         “Babysitting … then?”

 

         Nikola sighed gustily, mock-petulant. “Indeed. I must have committed some egregious sins in a previous life to pay for them in such a manner now.”

 

         John attempted to laugh but found that it hurt too much. He looked over at Nikola curiously. “Why are you … here, old boy?”

 

         Nikola merely shrugged, but there was no sardonic lift to his shoulders, or dismissive glint in his eye. The two men regarded each other for a moment, both unable to really place how two bitter rivals could reconcile with the understanding that also comes from a century’s worth of history, but beginning to accept that some things just were.

 

         “What are … the doctor’s … orders?”

 

         “Bed rest. And I guess you get jello.”

 

***

 

         Helen and Aurelian both stared at the small plot of earth underneath the oldest tree the Sanctuary had in its courtyard. Aurelian had insisted that Ylerin’s remains be cremated, and they had placed the ashes in a small urn that they buried underneath the tree’s roots. Helen had asked Aurelian if he would have preferred they be sent back to the temple, but he had waved off the idea.

 

         “The temple is merely a place. All one needs is somewhere one can see the stars and the moon.”

 

         She looked over at him, he had perhaps been the least affected by the death, and wondered again on what it must like to be older than some civilizations. To see great empires rise and fall, and more than once in a lifetime.

 

         “You’ll be going back to South America then?”

 

         “Yes,” he nodded, “there are still places I haven’t explored. Great cities I have not seen. There is still much to enjoy, and I feel like going about it at a more sedate pace than I have been lately.”

 

         Helen smiled at that. With all the chaos they had recently endured, a slower change of pace seemed welcome to all.

 

         Aurelian turned so he could face her better, a question revolving in his mind. He was silent for a moment, and she looked back with polite curiosity until he finally spoke. “With Ylerin’s passing, her life debt has now also ended with her. And while I have observed the same as if I have also given such a vow … I now wonder if it is still necessary.”

 

         Helen blinked at his cryptic words, she should have been used to it by now. “What do you mean?”

 

         Aurelian beckoned her closer, and then leaned in as if he were about to kiss her. Before their lips could touch, a silvery wisp left his mouth and curled towards hers. She inhaled, an old memory settling in the back of her mind, waiting and dormant for her perusal.

 

         Aurelian drew back, smiled at her, clasped her hand and then got up and walked away. Helen stared at his disappearing form in wonder, an inkling of what he left her, and closed her eyes.

 

         Helen teased out the memory and saw what Nikola had wished for down in the Chamber of Silver over a year ago when she thought he had died.

 

***

 

         Nikola picked up his small soldering iron and then put it down again for the third time. He gave out an unhappy huff as he stared at his workstation and felt acutely uninspired.

 

         “Bored?” Helen asked teasingly as she sat down and pushed a cup of tea towards him.

 

         “Immensely,” he growled, sniffing the tea suspiciously first before drinking it.

 

         The elemental he continued to contain within the EM shield he generated. He had decided it was the best place for it. There was no hope of any interference be he sleeping or unconscious. It would only fail if he were dead. It stuck to his person, as he needed some contact to generate the shield, and sometimes it nestled unobtrusively in the palm of his hand, or sometimes in the hollow of his neck where he could hide it under clothing when he was tired of such a constant reminder.

 

         Helen had insisted they find a better place for it, but had agreed that they now had the time to design and build a foolproof house for it. Nikola had attempted the initial designs five times already but kept scrapping them.

 

         “I need a _challenge_. I’m just bored now. I’ve made Wardenclyffe twice and finally perfected it. My company’s making more money with minor designs than I ever made with my best patents a century ago… there’s nothing new to do. Nothing fun.” Nikola pouted into his cup of tea.

 

         “Oh quit whining. I have something you can do for me if you’re really keen on a new sort of task.”

 

         Nikola looked at her suspiciously. “Unless it involves you in various states of undress, I’m uninterested.”

 

         She glared at him. “It _doesn’t_ … and when has Nikola Tesla ever backed away from trying something new?”

 

         He tried to think of a cutting response, realized she was right, and settled for glowering at her instead. She merely grinned back and said, “Your face will stick like that.”

 

         “Barbarous woman,” He sighed, “Just tell me your designs for me already.”

 

         “Run a Sanctuary.”

 

         Nikola snorted derisively, saw that she wasn’t joking and then his eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “Why would I ever want to do that?”

 

         She grinned. “It’s a challenge. You’ll have lots of responsibilities, new problems to solve every day, a whole team to work under you, and all the time you want to work on your side projects whenever the fancy strikes you.”

 

         Nikola pulled a face. “I don’t know if babysitting furry freaks is really the life for me, sweet Helen.”

 

         “You can see if you’re any better than me at it. I highly doubt it, there is a _steep_ learning curve.”

 

         Nikola frowned, and then pointed his finger accusingly at her. “I see what you’re doing here…”

 

         Helen kept her most innocent smile on her face. “Who knows? Maybe there _are_ some things you can learn from me. You’re right, perhaps this is a challenge too great even for the brilliant Nikola Tesla. There are just some things I can do better than you.”

 

         Nikola glared furiously at her, and then mumbled into his teacup, “I don’t want to live in Paraguay.”

 

         “Actually that position is being filled by an existing Head of House who wants a change of scenery. Think about it…” Helen got up and winked mischievously at him as she left the room.

 

         He cried out after her, “Devil woman!”

 

***

 

         “Is that all right for you, John? Do you need some more support on your back?”

 

         Nikola grinned over at him. “I can fluff your pillows if you’d like.”

 

         John gave him a withering glare as he eased himself onto the lawn chair, trying very hard not to wince as he did so. He didn’t need to give the vampire another bloody thing to laugh at him about. Helen kicked Nikola in the shin to shut him up, and helped John into the chair so he was most comfortable.

 

         “Are you sure he should be having any, Helen? You’re an irresponsible doctor for prescribing your patient alcohol.”

 

         Helen uncorked the bottle and sniffed it appreciatively. “Could you really call the Chateau D’Yquem mere alcohol, Nikola?”

 

         He pretended to think about that and gravely said, “You’re right, Helen, I can’t. Now hurry up and pour, woman.”

 

         John clucked his tongue disapprovingly at Nikola and said, “Gluttony is a deadly sin, old boy. You don’t want to damn your soul, do you?”

 

         “With this kind of vintage? Happily.”

 

         They each held up their glasses, and with Helen’s prompting raised them up. “A toast, gentlemen.”

 

         Nikola paused in thought, considering his words carefully, and with equal parts audacity and aplomb declared, “To outlasting everyone else.”

 

         Helen looked at him disapprovingly for his crass choice of words, but had to hold back a giggle. John leaned over and quirked a knowing eyebrow at Nikola as he said, “To not having killed each other all this time.”

 

         They looked expectantly at Helen, and she thought for a moment of where they all were. All together, sitting on her rooftop, having near misses with death, losing yet more friends, coming out on top of a ghastly shadow war, and somehow still having each other.

 

         “To the Three. To us.”

 

         They clinked their glasses together and drank underneath the stars.

 

***

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...but wait! There's an epilogue.


	18. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

***

 

         “And how are you settling in?”

 

         “I hate it.”

 

         Helen laughed, “Nikola, you’ve only been at it a month!”

 

         He sniffed, brushing an invisible speck of dust from his suit and shook his head derisively. “The décor’s pretentious, the labs are woefully bare of even the most essential equipment, the mainframe is two years out of date, my assistant’s a blithering idiot, my study is too small and the abnormals here _smell_.”

 

         Helen crossed her arms against her chest, unwilling to believe someone could be so sour. “That just means you have a lot of room to leave your touch of genius in improvements, doesn’t it?”

 

         “You know, Helen, that glass is half full crap doesn’t work on me. I deal with realism.”

 

         She sighed. “I can already tell people are terrified of you here, aren’t they?”

 

         He merely quirked an eyebrow nonchalantly. Truth being, Helen could tell Nikola was thrilled to have the run of the place. Head of New York Sanctuary. His old playground. A real place of lasting legacy and work that he could leave his own personal touch upon. Especially with Terence Wexford’s mishandling and summary dismissal, this particular house had been under many different hands and without enough permanency to regain its rhythm and footing.

 

         She had worried that Nikola would immediately begin to make a nuisance of himself, but his reputation as a scientist seemed to work in his favour at the very least. The other Heads of Houses had welcomed him as a new member of the organization, and the staff at New York were unanimously pleased to have a permanent leadership once again and with a figure so iconic and treasured to that city.

 

         Of course, when she had dropped in for a little visit she could already see the rolling of eyes and private little in-jokes that had already cropped up amongst the staff over their new eccentric Head, but it was a vast improvement from the full-blown mutiny she had secretly feared.

 

         Helen looked down at the floors and groaned. “Oh Nikola don’t tell me _that’s_ what you spent two-hundred thousand dollars on.”

 

         “What?”

 

         She gestured to the tiling. “Patterns of three? You ripped up the old floors so you could have tiles that lay in patterns of three?”

 

         “ _My_ Sanctuary. _My_ rules. We’re already outstripping you in the quarterly outcomes of practical applications of abnormal research.”

 

         “Yes, but you’ve already gone thirty percent over budget for this quarter!”

 

         Nikola waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, we’ll make it back somehow. It was worth it for the pigeon coop anyway.”

 

         Helen looked at him curiously, a grin sneaking around the corner of her mouth. “You’ve put in a pigeon coop?”

 

         “Yeah, on the roof. Right next to the new lightning rod.”

 

         “ _Nikola!_ ”

 

         He laughed and ducked as she swatted him with her handbag. She noticed the small hint of blue and black swirling by his neck, framed by the collar of his shirt. He followed her gaze and gave her a small shrug when their eyes met again. She looked concerned. “Have you come up with anything for that yet?”

 

         “A few prototypes … none that I’m happy with though. Don’t worry, Helen, what’s the worst that can happen?”

 

         She looked pointedly at it. “That you’re stuck with it for the rest of your life.”

 

         He held her lightly by the arms. “Exactly. My very long, immortal life. No chance of it ever getting loose or hurting anyone ever again so long as I breathe.”

 

Helen felt her breath hitch in her throat as he smiled down at her, and she thought of all he had gone through and sacrificed to keep that energy beast from ever running loose again. It seemed cruel that he was chained to it now.

 

She silently decided she wouldn’t let that happen. She would find a way where Nikola wouldn’t have to keep putting himself last.

 

“You know what we need?” Nikola asked as he led her down the hallway to take a tour of the new facilities.

 

“What’s that?” She asked as she linked his arm through his.

 

         “A holiday.”

 

         “Shirking your duty already?”

 

         Nikola grinned. “Like you said, the Head of House has the privilege of having time to work on their little side projects as it were. And I still own property and vineyards in Chile…”

 

         Helen realized what he was intimating and finished for him. “…and the first bottles of the year are being uncorked now in Chile.”

 

         He waggled his eyebrows at her in what he must have assumed was a seductive gesture, and she couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe this had been a horrid idea after all. Now he had all the excuses to bother her, demand her time, cause trouble, and give her even more gray hairs all in the name of Sanctuary business. And already here he was disrupting her work and making a nuisance of himself.

 

         “Oh, sod it.”

 

         He grinned. “Your plane or mine?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and we come to the end. Oof! This was certainly a journey writing, and I'm absolutely chuffed with the response and reader support. I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> ....yes. Plot bunnies are evil and there WILL be a sequel. The Three series is begging to be a trilogy. So keep an eye out for that in future! Cheers!
> 
> Teaser: Nikola, newly instated Head of House for New York, must now figure out how to run a Sanctuary, beat Helen in the quarterly reports, what to do with this pesky elemental, and convince Helen a vacation for the both of them is in order...


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